The Crest Of Unity
by musichick
Summary: This is my first fanfic and it is gonna go Romance...hope ya like! Please review if you want me to continue it. It's between Matt and my own made up character...
1. Default Chapter Title

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THE CREST OF UNITY

Hello peeps! This is my first ever fanfic so be nice! This is just the prelogue and I am not going to continue the story unless I get some positive feedback, k? So PLEASE REVIEW!!!

NB:Y'know the drill: I don't own Digimon!!!

Now on to the story…

__

Matt wandered through the dark forest, the foggy mists swirling about him, entwining his arms and legs. He turned slightly to find himself standing in a large clearing near a lake. The full moon illuminated the area, the only source of light. He suddenly heard a soft melody being sung; it sounded sad and forlorn.

"Who's there?!" he demanded to know.

The mists parted to show a mysterious figure, cloaked by shadows, sitting on a rock. Matt stared in wonder as the image became clearer; it was girl about his age with long, charcoal-black hair. Her eyes were hidden from view under its cascading wave.

"Who are you?" Matt whispered. But there was no answer: just the same, sad song.

"Please- tell me who you are?" he pleaded with her and moved towards her slowly, until he was standing only a few feet from her. The girl slowly lifted her head, the song growing louder. Her eyes were closed and Matt watched, mesmerized, as she slowly opened them. He gasped in surprise as he locked his blue eyes with a pair of bright, dark violet ones. 

Suddenly he was seized by a myriad of emotion; an overwhelming sense of loss, grief and loneliness- things he had felt before, but not as deep and terrifying as **this**. He fell to his knees as he looked into the girl's eyes and as he watched the tears well up in them he felt her pain and anguish take a choking, death grip on him. As she opened her mouth to scream, he too opened his and cried out, knowing only the feeling of tremendous loss.

Matt awoke with a start in an upright position. He'd broken out in a cold sweat, breathing heavily.

"God, what a dream," he whispered to himself. His digimon, Gabumon, stirred in his sleep by Matt's side. Matt moved slowly away so as not to disturb him and stood up. He surveyed his surroundings and his group of friends, scattered around the small, dwindling fire. Matt shuddered as he felt the remaining emotions from the dream circle his head. Shaking himself, he decided to take a walk to take his mind off the nightmare. 

He slowly made his way into the forest and hadn't gone very far before hearing the faint sounds of crying. Matt followed the sound until he came to a river. He stifled a gasp of surprise for the noise was coming from a young girl, sitting by the river. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, face hidden behind a waterfall of charcoal-black hair…wait a second…

Before Matt could grasp hold of the thought he noticed a large cat-like digimon sitting beside her, paw resting on her shoulder.

"Shhhh…Harmony…its alright…" the digimon purred soothingly.

"No it isn't!" she cried. "I'm gonna be stuck here forever- in a strange world full of evil digimon with not another human in sight!"

The cat digimon extended her claws and began to softly stroke the girl's hair with them.

"Harmony…I know that's not what is really bothering you…will you not tell me?" the digimon whispered in comfort. The girl sighed.

"I'm sorry Tigramon, no…that is not what's really bothering me…it's just the fact that…" she took a deep breath. "Remember what I told you about my brother dying?"

Now there was _no_ way Matt was leaving.

"Yes" Tigramon replied softly, "as I am a psychic digimon- I have access to all your memories remember? I know the pain you felt…"

Harmony whimpered and Matt couldn't help but feel a connection with her. If anything happened to T.K…

"Yeah well…" she hesitated for a moment, "today is the anniversary of his death-" her countenance changed from one of sadness to anger, "-and goddamit I can't even go visit his grave cause I'm stuck _here_" she said bitterly, gesturing to their surroundings. Matt felt sorry for her, and was wondering what to do when it dawned on him he had no idea what she was doing in the Digiworld in the first place.

"Could it be?…" he said to himself. "Could there be a ninth digi-destined?!"

His question was answered when he noticed her pull out a digi-vice.

"This thing has caused more trouble than it is worth!" she said in disgust.

"Hell, I don't even know what it is!" she was about to throw it into the river when Tigramon stopped her.

"Neither do I know what it is for-" the digimon started. "Nor do I know why I have an overwhelming need to stay by your side and protect you at all costs…" Harmony stared at her and listened.

"But as a psychic digimon I know there is a reason you have that thing-" she gestured to the digi-vice. "And as your friend I advise you to hold onto it. You never know when you might need it"

Matt watched in relief as the girl pocketed the digi-vice and stood up. He now was able to have a good look at her; she wore hipster jean shorts and a halter top, showing off tanned legs, arms…and abdomen. Matt blinked and shook his head when he realised he had been staring. But…he couldn't help it…she truly was very beautiful. He looked into her face and was startled when he saw her violet-coloured eyes. There was something familiar about them; something he couldn't quite place…

He shifted and accidentally stood on a twig. It snapped.

Harmony whipped her head around, as did Tigramon. Harmony crouched down low in a defensive stance and pulled something long and black from a small back-pack she wore. She snapped it against the ground causing a sound like a gunshot to crack the air; it was a whip. Tigramon sniffed the air and turned in Matt's direction, growling. Matt held his breath.

"Who's there?" Harmony called out, her large, almond shaped eyes narrowing into slits.

Matt cursed himself for being so careless. Then he realised it was stupid to act like this.

"If she is a digi-destined, she's gonna have to meet me and the others sooner or later." The blonde reasoned with himself. He cleared his throat and came out into the open. The girl almost dropped the whip and both her and Tigramon were speechless; mouths hanging wide-open.

"Uh…Hi" Matt said. _Uh…HI?! – you idiot Matt, you can do better-_

his thought was interrupted in midsentence when he noticed tears forming in Harmony's eyes and she was beginning to hyperventilate. He was worried now…he used the name he heard Tigramon call her.

"Harmony?"

He jumped as she suddenly screamed.

"My god my GOD you can't be here…youaren'tAndante, Andanteisnotblonde andhecertainlyisn'talive" she rambled on, the words rushing out of her mouth in a tidal wave of terror. Matt stared at her in surprise,

"Andante?" he tried to question but she burst into tears, turned on her heels and ran.

He was left facing a confused, yet angry digimon and stepped back slightly as it growled at him. He watched as Tigramon looked at him, then at the retreating figure of Harmony, then back again.

"I do not know who you are-" the digimon growled. "and I am sorry for her reaction, but she has her reasons…" Tigramon trailed off. Matt tried to speak.

"Please- just leave." the cat said abruptly, then turned in the direction of her human companion, looking back once more. " Do not come near us again...it would hurt her too much." With that she bounded off into the night.

"WAIT!" Matt yelled but it was too late- the girl and her digimon were gone.

"Dammit!" he said to himself angrily and kicked a small stone. "I wanted to talk to her…" He stopped when he realised why he wanted…no _needed_ to speak to her; he had seen her before. In his head…in his imagination…

__

In his dream.

TAH DAH! Whaddya think? If you want me to continue this story on to part 1 then you're gonna have to review cause I won't otherwise! NB: I have a main storyline but if there is anything you might like to see happen and would like put in the story, please email me at: [Harmony__@hotmail.com][1]

Thanks!

Peace Luv and

HARMONY

   [1]: mailto:Harmony__@hotmail.com



	2. Default Chapter Title

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THE CREST OF UNITY: Part One

A NINTH DIGIDESTINED?!

Here's watcha been waitin for! The first chapters! Oh! And uh….

Blah blah blah I don't own Digimon!!! [Nor am I making any money! Don't sue!!!] J

Matt had found his way back to camp only to find everyone else awake, excitedly discussing something. He cleared his throat and they all turned to look at him.

"Matt! You're okay!" said Gabumon happily.

"Yeah- we wondered what had happened to you!" Tai added. Matt shrugged.

"I just went for a walk that's all" he replied indifferently.

"Couldn't sleep huh?" Sora chimed in sympathetically.

"Something like that- so what's everyone up for? You weren't worried about me were you?" the blonde asked out of curiosity.

"Well, of course we were worried about you but there was something much more important to discuss…" Izzy began. Matt sat down with the others with a questioning look on his face.

"I woke up earlier to the sound of my computer beeping-" Izzy gestured to the laptop. He checked to see if everyone was listening. They all waited in silence for him to continue. "- I discovered an urgent email from Gennai with some exciting news. Apparently there is a ninth digidestined that has been here for a few months who unfortunately has no idea we are here and has somehow managed to stay out of our sight" Izzy paused to get his breath.

"Yeah- the ninth digidestined is a girl and Gennai wants us to find her before Myotismon does!" Kari finished for him dramatically.

__

"Uh oh…." thought Matt. "I must have been right about that girl Harmony…"

"YES! Another girl!" Mimi said happily, clasping her hands together. "Someone else to share my great sense of fashion with!"

Sora rolled her eyes. "What makes you think she'll be into clothes like you? She might like sports like me…"

Matt stayed silent as he watched the two girls argue, the others all formed sweatdrops. TK diverted his attention to his brother.

"Hey Matt, what are you thinking about?" he asked, noticing the distracted look on the blonde's face. This announcement caused everyone to cease all movement and turn to look at him. Matt was startled by the sudden attention and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand in embarrassment.

"Ahhh..well, ya see I don't know how to say this but ahh…I think I've already met the ninth digidestined." Everyone fell back in surprise.

"And you didn't tell us?!" Tai yelled at Matt.

"Hey! You didn't give me a chance-" he started to argue back.

"Well? Who is she? What's she like? When did you meet her?" everyone began to question him, causing him to feel like an imprisoned animal.

"SHUT-UP!" he yelled them. The rest of the digidestined and digimon fell silent. He took a deep breath.

"Look- I only met her a few moments ago…when I went for walk…"

"WHAT?! Then she must be near by! Why didn't you bring her here- if we're quick we could catch up to her-" Tai began. Matt shook his head.

"I tried to talk to her…she just acted really scared then she and her digimon just took off"

"Huh? That's weird" Joe stated, confused. "why'd she do that?"

"I dunno, she was just going on about some guy named Andante then started crying and ran off"

"Wow" Sora breathed "I wonder what was wrong…"

Matt nodded his head. "Yeah- I wish she hadn't run off like that…"

__

She was really beautiful. He added in his own head.

"Well, did you find out anything about her at all?" Tai asked.

"Uh…well, her digimon's name is Tigramon…I think that's when it's in it's rookie form…and Tigramon called the girl 'Harmony'…"

"Harmony? That's a pretty name!" Kari piped up.

"Yeah….it is…" Matt trailed off.

"Well? Is that it? Anything else?" Izzy probed him.

"Uh….well, she has a dead brother…that much I know.." he said bluntly.

"ohhh….how horrible for her!" Mimi interrupted, with a reply worthy to start her crest glowing again.

"Yeah" Matt agreed, thinking about TK again. "The only other thing I can think of is really just a guess, but I don't think she has any idea she is a digidestined- neither does her digimon…" the whole group fell silent in surprise. The blonde continued. "From what I could see, she doesn't have her crest yet…she has a digivice but she doesn't seem to know what it is for. That's about all I know."

Everyone remained silent; including their digimon, lost in their own thoughts. It was Tai who was the first to speak, with a reply of a true leader.

"Well, I think we should get a few more hours sleep then head out to find this girl- Harmony, was it?" he looked at Matt who nodded. "Well, the ninth digidestined anyways…we better find her as soon as possible- we can't let Myotismon get his hands on her!" Tai stated with determination. The others all agreed.

"Yes- we will proceed in the morning" Izzy confirmed. Everyone murmered their goodnights and were soon fast asleep…everyone except for Matt. He laid back with his hands behind his head looking at the moon.

"Hope I'll see you again soon, Harmony" he looked around at his friends and then clutched at his crest. 

"At least before Myotismon does".

****

THE CREST OF UNITY: Part Two

THE APPEARANCE OF TIGRAMON

Mimi collapsed on the ground. "I don't think I can walk another step!" she whined, taking her hat and fanning her head with it. "It's so hot!"

"Mimi! We have to keep moving!" Tai said, annoyed. To his surprise Sora and a couple of the digimon sat down too. "I agree with Mimi, Tai! It's so hot and we have been walking for ages- we need a break!"

"Yes-not to be pig, but I think a nutrition break is in order!" Tentomon spoke up, gesturing at his stomach. Izzy grinned and everyone murmured their agreement. Tai sighed.

"Fine then- we'll have a short break. Anyone willing to come with me to find some food?"

"I will!" Sora said and got up from her sitting place next to Mimi. "Me too!" said Biyomon. Agumon also decided to go along. As the small group walked off into the forest, Matt sighed and wandered a short way from the rest of his friends. He leaned against a tree as he thought about Harmony and took out his harmonica, losing himself in a slow blues tune.

Tigramon lifted her head weakly at the sound of the song. Painful…to move…must find help…

__

The flash of lightening, Harmony's terrified scream for help. There were bats everywhere and a harsh, evil laugh could be heard from behind the black wall of wings. The bats were attacking Harmony who was attempting to fend them off with her whip; the repeated sound of it cracking the air…Tigramon leapt to her defence only to find herself face to face with a large digimon with long black wings that trailed to his feet. He wore a mask, his fangs protruding from underneath.

"Foolish digimon! You cannot beat me!" he laughed. "CRIMSON LIGHTENING!" Tigramon howled in pain as she was whipped repeatedly with the red electricity. The bats surrounded her and began tearing at her flesh. She fought them off weakly with her claws, not causing enough damage for them to leave her alone.

"No!" Harmony screamed tearfully. "Please! Take me! Just leave her alone-"

"Hmmm, how noble of you…I suppose I should leave a calling card for those meddlesome digidestined and their pitiful excuses for digimon." The vampirish digimon called the bats off of Tigramon but ordered them to capture Harmony. They picked her up and she rose up in the air crying.

"It'll be okay Tigramon!" she cried as her digimon tried to get up but collapsed again. "When the digidestined find you, tell them this is from MYOTISMON!" the evil digimon roared with laughter as he slammed the crimson lightening into Tigramon one last time. The last thing she heard before everything went black was Harmony screaming.

Matt stopped playing suddenly. The others looked in his direction as the beautiful melody ceased.

"Are you alright Matt?" Gabumon called over to him.

"Uh- yeah, I just think I heard something" he looked around confused. Everyone came over to join him.

"Shhh" Mat motioned for the others to be quiet. Suddenly they all heard a low growl.

"Oh no!" Mimi whispered "What if it is another evil digimon!"

"Don't worry Mimi! I'll protect you!" said Palmon confidently and stood in front of her human companion.

"Alriiiiight! Who's out there!" she yelled.

"PALMON!" Matt said in annoyance. "Quiet! We have no idea what-"

The bushes rustled and everyone stared in shock as a rather dilapidated digimon stumbled out of the bushes.

"HEY GUYS!" Tai, Sora and the others were back. "We found a great supply of food-" Sora stopped, as did Tai, Agumon and Biyomon when they saw the badly hurt digimon. They dropped the food and raced forward to the others.

"Please-" gasped the digimon. "Help me!" she collapsed on the ground.

"Oh the poor thing!" Mimi said, stroking her head. "Mimi! Watch it- we have no idea whose side that digimon is on!" Joe said in caution.

"I do!" Matt spoke up and everyone turned to look at him. "That is Tigramon- _Harmony's _digimon" he stressed grimly. They all fell silent as they realised the complication of his words.

"I guess we are staying here tonight" Tai voiced their thoughts. The others moved to create a good campsite while Matt picked up the digimon and moved her near to where the fire would be. He watched, fear clutching at his heart for Harmony, as he got a good look at numerous burns and lacerations. Mimi and Joe began to tend to the badly hurt Tigramon, who moaned.

"Myotismon" she whispered. Matt whipped his head around to look at the digimon.

"What?" the others all came over one by one as they realised he was talking to the cat.

"What did you say?" he coaxed her.

"Myotismon.." she repeated, "did…this- please…help- Harmony…" her eyes closed and her body went limp.

"Oh no!" Mimi cried. "She's not dead is she?!" she said fearfully. Joe felt for a pulse.

"No- she's alive, but barely."

"So…what does this mean?" Sora said slowly.

Matt stood up and clenched his hands into fists. "He has her- Myotismon- has- Harmony" he said slowly and deliberately. 

Everyone stood in shocked silence. They turned to Tai- if they ever need a leader, now was the time. He stared into space for a few seconds before turning to the others.

"We have to find her." He looked at Matt.

"Before Myotismon kills her"

And thus ends the first two parts of my story. Now, the only reason I continued from the prologue is because of those wonderful reviews I received! ::grins:: Thanks Jade and 'Cuno! You guys are the only reason I continued this story so I dedicate these chapters to ya! If anyone wants me to continue this, once again I ask you to REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW cause otherwise I won't! See ya in the next chapter! [or will I ???? ::grins evilly:: remember…REVIEW!!!]

Peace Luv and

HARMONY

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	3. Default Chapter Title

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THE CREST OF UNITY: Part 3

THE RESCUE

K, before I start I have a few acknowledgements to make ::hears a chorus of groans:: well if you don't want to know then just skip on down to the story but I consider them to be important!

First of all, thanks again to Jade: I have to say her reviews are much appreciated and are really the only reason I continue this story. Email me! You seem really nice! ::grins::

Also, to a fellow author by the name of 'Mysterious': I am sorry! I had no idea one of your characters was called Harmony too! The only thing I can possibly offer as condolence is that there are 6 BILLION people on this earth. The odds of coincidental encounters just rose dramatically…::grins:: small world huh?! LOL well, here are the next couple of chapters: hope ya like!

PS: review review review review review review review…[ehhhh…ya get the idea! J ]

Matt sat on a rock looking down the track, towards the horizon. The sun was just rising and the sky looked like it had been tie dyed with a wash of colour, ranging from a light yellow-pink to a dark-blue, tinged with purple. The blonde turned his gaze downwards and stared at the harmonica sitting in his hands. _Harmonica….Harmony…._

He sighed. Matt just couldn't get the picture of the beautiful black-haired girl out of his head. He hoped she was alright- he'd had another dream about her again. A different place with high walls and rows of prison cells. He guessed he was imagining the place where Harmony was probably being held captive by Myotismon. Although a different scene, he had recalled the same terrifying feelings of loneliness, despair, grief…and of tremendous loss.

He shuddered and raised the harmonica to his mouth, beginning a beautiful melodic tune he had always loved.

"Your music is from the heart- just like Harmony's" a voice purred from behind. Matt nearly dropped his instrument and turned to find himself face to face with none other than Tigramon.

"TIGRAMON?! You're alright!" he said with surprise. He then stopped when he recalled what the digimon had said. "music…from the heart? What do you mean 'just like Harmony'?"

The cat blinked and realised the boy had no idea what she was talking about. "Oh- Harmony plays a musical instrument too…it is called…a guitar???" Matt was surprised. "The guitar, huh?" hmm..it seemed they had something in common…

By this time he had managed to wake up all the others and once they saw the digimon awake, he and Tigramon were at once surrounded.

"Hey you're alright!"

"How are you feeling?"

"You were in pretty bad shape when we found you!"

The barrage of questions continued until Tigramon raised a paw to silence them.

"Please- I thank-you for helping me, but I must find my human companion…she may be in grave danger!" the digimon turned to leave but was stopped by Tai.

"Wait. We REALLY need to talk with you…" the cat just looked at him confused and the brown-haired boy sighed, "Okay..uhh…how to start…"

"Perhaps I could be of some assistance" Izzy stepped forward and turned to Tigramon.

"Have you by any chance heard a legend about a group known as 'The Digidestined'?" the computer whiz questioned. The digimon nodded her head.

"Yes- it has been foretold that a group of humans, each aided by a digimon companion would free the digiworld of the evil that…." Tigramon trailed off as she realised what he was getting at. She gasped.

"You- you all…are these digidestined?" she asked in surprise and awe. The digimon and their human counterparts all nodded.

"Yes- and we have just had news that there is a ninth digidestined…namely your friend Harmony" Izzy finished. The cat looked at him in awe.

"But that would mean I'm-"

"-Her digimon..yeah" Matt finished for her. Tigramon sat back on her haunches.

"Of course…that would explain everything…" she whispered to herself. "So..who are you all?"

"Well…I'm Tai…."

Harmony groaned as she came to on the cold, hard floor of a prison cell. She heard the sound of chuckling and mustered all of her strength to raise her head.

"ahh…you're awake….good." before her stood the terrifying form of the vampire-like digimon that had taken her prisoner.

"Who are you?" she whispered. She was too sore and stiff to speak any louder.

"I am Myotismon, soon to be the complete ruler of the digiworld if everything goes to plan."

"Wha-"

"Ahhh…foolish girl. You really do not know, do you?" he chuckled and she looked at him confused. Myotismon waved a hand in the air forming a water-like pool in the atmosphere. Within it appeared the images of a group of eight teens, each with a digimon. On closer inspection she gasped as she saw the familiar form of a blonde, blue-eyed boy. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought about their last encounter. He looked a lot like her twin brother, Andante, who had died only a year earlier, except instead of the same coloured eyes and hair as herself, he was blonde and blue-eyed. As she studied him further she realised how stupid she had been; they were actually quite different. It was really the hair style that had thrown her…and the fact he had appeared out of nowhere, in the middle of the night, on the anniversary of her brother's death…it had been too much for her.

"Ahem" Myotismon attempted to draw her attention back into the present. Harmony realised quite a few minutes had gone by…minutes she had spent looking at a very cute blonde…_.wait a second…did I say cute?!…_

"These are the digidestined."

"Digiwhat?!"

"All will be explained in time my dear..." he sneered at her. She narrowed her eyes at him, causing him to laugh.

"What's this? That look almost suggests you have some hope of getting out of here. Well say your prayers girl for as soon as those meddlesome children get here I will kill you all."

Harmony gasped and Myotismon howled with laughter.

"What do you want from me?"

"At the moment you are just bait dear child. And this digivice of yours-" he held up the small electronic piece Harmony had found just before being transported to the Digi-world. "Is what they are using to track you down"

"But why do they want to track me down?"

Myotismon sighed…this was going to take a while…

Tai stared intently at his digivice. They were getting close. Tigramon was becoming more and more agitated as time went by. She stayed right in front, hoping to see some sign of Harmony. All of a sudden she had to stop for in front of them was solid rock, the base of a large cliff face. Tai came up to the wall and scratched his head.

"That's strange, the digivice says she is past this wall but there is nothing but solid rock."

Tigramon sniffed at the cliff and suddenly put her paw right through the wall. Everyone stared in surprise. Izzy grinned.

"Ah, a camouflaged entrance…ingenius"

Tigramon, Matt and Gabumon went in first with Tai and Agumon. The others all followed in excitement. They hoped Harmony was alright!

After what seemed like hours but was really only minutes they came into a large, dark room.

"So, where do you think we are?" Matt whispered to Tai. The brown-haired boy looked at his digi-vice by the light of his watch.

"According to this she actually should be in here with us!" Tai blurted out in surprise. The others looked at him, amazed.

"THAT SHE IS!" a loud, familiar voice boomed, startling them out of their thoughts. Suddenly several bright lights were turned on and Matt shielded his eyes, unable to see. As his eyes adjusted he heard Gabumon call out.

"Over there!" he turned to see the black-haired girl from his dreams on her knees, arms tied behind her back, her mouth gagged. As he watched the tears rise in her eyes he felt the anger build in him.

"Let her go Myotismon!" Tai confronted the evil digimon.

"Hahaha! Fools!" he cried. Suddenly they were surrounded by his evil army. "Now that I have captured you, it's time finish you once and for all! Why don't we start with the one you were looking for in the first place." He turned towards Harmony and a couple of his lackeys undid her gag then shoved her forward. The girl groaned in pain as she hit the floor.

"HEY! Leave her alone!" Matt yelled in anger. Myotismon laughed.

"If I didn't know better I'd say you cared for her! Well, even if you do, it's time to say goodbye! Any last words, girl?" 

Harmony raised her head and stuck her tongue out. "Go to hell" 

If not for the situation they were in, Matt might have laughed. Myotismon roared.

"You will pay for your insolence! CRIMSON LIGHTENING!" 

He slashed at her with the red electricity and Harmony screamed as it met with her body.

"grhhhhh…STOP IT! YOU'RE HURTING HER!" Matt cried out. His crest began to glow.

"Gabumon digivolve to…GARURUMON!"

"You too Agumon!" Tai nodded at his digimon. The little dinosaur-like digimon nodded his head.

"Agumon digivolve to…GREYMON!"

"Yes! We have to help her! She is being hurt!" Mimi nodded at Palmon who returned the gesture.

"Palmon digivolve to… TOGEMON!" 

All the others began to digivolve too, their human partners yelling encouragement. As each one finished changing their form, they began to attack Myotismon and his lackeys. The walls soon began to shake and crumble as large digibodies were thrown against them. Myotismon hit Harmony with the lightening one last time then diverted his attention to fighting the other digimon. Matt saw this as his chance. He ran to Harmony, dodging the many fights forming around him. He kneeled down and pulled her into his arms. She whimpered and opened her eyes slightly to find herself staring into the blonde's gorgeous blue ones.

"Hey…" he said gently. "It's okay, my name is Matt- remember we've met?" she smiled slightly then gasped in pain. He frowned, hoping she was okay. "We'll get you out of here…" he said, just before she fell unconscious. Suddenly behind him something large slammed into the wall. Matt was horrified to find it was Garurumon.

"GARURUMON!" his crest began to glow again and Garurumon opened his eyes. "I'm okay Matt! Garurumon digivolve to…WEREGARURUMON!"

A couple of the other digimon had already digivolved to their ultimate forms and the battle seemed to be under control…they were winning. Weregarurumon joined in just as the roof of the cavern began to cave in. Matt shielded Harmony as best he could as small rocks fell down around them. He suddenly saw an interesting looking object in the corner and recalled Tigramon's words. _"Harmony plays…the guitar???"_

Just as he thought this, the cat digimon appeared at his side.

"Is she alright?" Tigramon worried.

"She will be, but you have to get her out of here!" she nodded her head and Matt carefully positioned Harmony on the digimon's back.

"QUICK! GO!" he yelled and the cat took off.

"Matt!" he turned to find Tai yelling at him. Myotismon had disappeared once again, swearing he would get his revenge.

"We gotta get out of here before the roof caves in!"

"Just a sec!" the blonde called and grabbed up the wooden instrument and a small backpack beside it that he assumed was Harmony's. He looked around him. Some of the others had already left and Tai was just running for the door with Agumon who had digivolved back to his in-training form.

"Matt!" Weregarurumon too was now in his in-training form, Tsunomon. "We gotta get out of here!" the blonde agreed and also grabbed up his digimon. He was about to leave when he saw something sparkle on the floor. He reached down and picked it up but had no time to look at it as another piece of the roof collapsed.

"Come on!" Tsunomon yelled. Matt shoved whatever it was that he had found in his pocket. He'd check it out later.

They ran out of the room as the whole roof caved in behind them. The dark tunnel was the same, beginning to crumble as well. He ran blindly, following the screams and yells from his friends. Suddenly he saw the entrance up ahead as light from outside streamed in. He watched in horror as it too began to crumble and rocks slowly began to fall. Matt took a deep breath and yelled as he threw himself at the exit, tumbling through just as it totally collapsed, leaving no trace of the secret building inside.

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THE CREST OF UNITY: Part Four

REVELATIONS

All the digidestined and their digimon sat around the fire, huddling together as the night grew darker and colder. Matt was sitting near Harmony, occasionally glancing over at her still form, watched over by the ever-present Tigramon. The digimon looked up at the group and sat down on the other side of the girl, looking at Matt.

"So how long have you and Harmony been here?" Biyomon asked. The cat sadly looked up.

"For about two months." Everyone fell silent for a few minutes.

"I guess you had a lot of time to get to know one another huh?" Sora asked sympathetically.

Tigramon nodded. "Yes- I guess you could say that. Because I'm a psychic digimon I have access to all of Harmony's memories and have seen what she has seen…felt what she has felt" the cat trailed off. 

"You're psychic?" Patomon was surprised, voicing the same question that was going through everyone's heads. Izzy was typing away furiously on his laptop and suddenely held it up in front of Tigramon. The computer beeped and an electronic voice began to speak.

"TIGRAMON- Rookie- special attack: confusion. Watch out for use of telepathic control"

All eyes turned on the cat and she smiled sheepishly.

"Confusion?" Kari asked, confused herself. The digimon nodded.

"Yes- whereby I take control of another being's body and use it to my own advantage."

"That must be useful!" TK piped up. Tigramon smiled.

"Yes it is, but it takes a lot of energy…plus, it is possible for people with an understanding of ESP to put up blockades so I can't do so. Also, I can only hold telepathic connections for short periods of time- except with Harmony"

"Huh?" Tai interrupted.

"I have a telepathic connection with Harmony…I can read her thoughts as she can mine. Although since she does have a good understanding of ESP there are certain memories she has blocked and I am unable to access."

"So…it's kinda like a computer…her memories are the data you want to bring up but you need to have the right software…and it can sometimes be protected with passwords." Izzy said, trying to make sense of it all. Tigramon nodded.

"If I try hard enough I can also bring up the images she is seeing." She continued more softly. "It can be painful sometimes to see and feel what she is going through…when Andante-"

Matt whipped his head around. "What did you say?"

"Andante"

The blonde's eyes widened with surprise.

"Hey- didn't you mention that name before Matt?" Tai asked out of curiosity. The digimon turned to the boy and narrowed her eyes.

"What do you know of Andante?!"

"Nothing! Just- remember when we first met?" Tigramon nodded. "Well, when I showed myself Harmony screamed and started going on about some guy named Andante.."

The cat now understood. "I see…perhaps I should explain…"

"Yeah- I think that would be a good idea!" Joe stated with confidence. The digimon sighed.

"Harmony used to have a twin brother…I say 'used to' for he was killed in an aeroplane crash.." the others all murmured their sympathies as Tigramon continued. "And the name of her brother was Andante."

Things were coming clearer all the time for Matt, but something still didn't make sense.

"But why did she run away?"

"Unfortunately when you found her, it was on the anniversary night of her brother's death…one year ago it happened…" the digimon sighed. "And coincidentally Matt, you are the same build, same height and have the exact same hairstyle as her brother."

Everyone fell into shocked silence. Though none more so than Matt.

"Woah…another Matt- who would've guessed!" Tai joked. Tigramon looked at him seriously. "Actually, the two are still quite different- Matt has blonde hair and blue eyes while Andante had the same violet eyes and black hair as Harmony…It was the hairstyle that threw her." she turned to Matt. "What with you appearing in the middle of the night, out of nowhere, on the anniversary of her brother's death!" she finished accusingly.

"Hey- how could I have known?" 

The digimon nodded her head. "Yes, exactly…" she trailed off.

"Wish I could see a picture of her brother" Mimi murmured.

"Well, I am psychic…I could show you telepathically"

All of them stared at her in surprise.

"You could do that?" Izzy asked in wonder. Believing in science so much he found it hard to understand such things as ESP and telekinetics.

Tigramon smiled.

"Yes- but as there are so many of you it would take a few minutes to send the picture to each of you. Now…close your eyes…"

They all did as they were told and waited in silence. Slowly each of them began to see two pictures forming in their heads. The one on the left came out first…it was Matt wearing one of his trademark 'don't mess with me looks'. All of them smiled when they saw it and wondered what the other image would bring. When the second appeared they all gasped in surprise and Matt was especially taken aback. For the picture showed a boy that looked a lot like Matt bearing the same expression and haircut. The only main differences that stood out were the hair and eye colour, which were the same as Harmony's. The dark-haired boy also had a more feminine face, probably thanks to being a girl's twin. 

The images suddenly vanished and everyone blinked, rubbing their eyes. They all looked at Tigramon whose eyes were still shut tight in concentration. Her body soon relaxed and she opened her eyes, looking around at the group.

"Phew…that took a lot…I'm really tired now. But I can't go to sleep- not with Harmony in that condition…" she said softly.

"You should get some rest Tigramon" Izzy spoke up.

"Yeah- one of us is supposed to be on watch anyway…whoever's turn it is can look after Harmony" Sora added as comfort, encouraging the digimon to sleep.

"Well- since I was on watch first last night, I'd say it'd be Izzy, then Joe, Mimi and then Matt has the last shift." Tai said with authority. They all agreed and Izzy took up residence by the unconcious Harmony. Gatomon noticed the worried look on Tigramon's face. "Don't worry, she'll be in good hands!" the small, white cat purred. Kari agreed.

"Yeah- come stay with us, we'll keep you company!" Tai's sister said cheerfully, patting the ground next to her. Harmony's digimon smiled and trotted over to lay down beside her.

"You are very kind, please use me as a pillow to make yourself more comfortable."

"Gee thanks Tigramon!" Kari said, forming an instant bond with the larger cat. She rested her head against the digimon's warm side, as did Gatomon, snuggling up against Kari.

Matt watched from a small distance and smiled to himself. Looking once more over at Harmony he laid down and closed his eyes.

"Sweet dreams Harmony" he whispered, before losing himself in a blissful state of slumber.

So….Ya still like it? ::whines:: PLEEEAASSEEE REVIEW if you do! The only one who is making any sort of good comment on the story is Jade! ::sighs:: well, a couple of important notes: hope these chapters weren't too boring for you, just a few things needed to be explained in the story…promise ya that the next chapter heats up ;-) especially since they found Harmony!!! Also, I have drawn some really cool pictures that go with this story but I can't get 'em to load on to here. If you want to see 'em just email me at [Harmony__@hotmail.com][1] and I'll send 'em to ya!

Once again…see ya in the next chapter! [Hopefully, if I get some good reviews…HINT HINT!!!] ::grins:: J

   [1]: mailto:Harmony__@hotmail.com



	4. Default Chapter Title

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THE CREST OF UNITY: Part Five

::ahem:: It has come to my attention that the digidestined defeated Myotismon before they returned to the digiworld with Kari. Why I only just realised this? Because I live in a little country called New Zealand, which is waaay behind episode-wise when it comes to broadcasting Digimon. ::annoyed:: So, I am now as they say, up a creek without a paddle. Thus, for those of you who have read the story so far, I ask to pretend I never mentioned him, and to change his name to some other enemy they have faced. It would be much appreciated! ::grins:: I just can't be bothered going through and changing it all again! LOL oh, BTW I never thought that the kids looked the ages they have been given, neither do they act those ages…I personally think they look a lot older than said, so in my fic Matt is 15 yrs old. You can work the ages of everyone else from there k? [Besides, 11 is a little too young to fall in love dontcha think? ;-) ] Now on to the story…

Matt couldn't help but brush a strand of Harmony's hair out of her face. Because she was unconscious, and everyone else was asleep, this was the perfect opportunity for him to study her. As he gently touched her face with a gloved hand, Matt felt a new, unknown sensation take over his body. For the briefest moment he was content and felt an overwhelming need to protect the dark-haired girl. His gaze went from her closed eyes to her beautiful mouth. Her light-pink coloured lips were parted slightly in her sleep.

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God he wanted to kiss her…

Matt immediately drew his hand back as the thought rampaged through his mind and took out his harmonica, hoping to forget the way he was feeling. His subconscious chose an old love-song that his mother had loved dearly. As the notes soothed his soul he leaned back against the base of a tree behind him and closed his eyes.

__

Beautiful music…sweet, tender…gentle….

Harmony was surrounded by darkness where she should have been afraid, but the comforting sound of a harmonica relaxed her body and made her feel protected, content. She looked around in wonder as the darkness began to fade and some sort of light became visible. Soon blurry images sharpened and she opened her eyes fully to find herself staring up at a starry night sky. She sighed and stirred slightly. Suddenly the music that had been playing stopped and she heard a rustle beside her. Harmony blinked and found herself staring into a pair of dark-blue eyes, close to the colour of the night. She rubbed her eyes and the full picture came into view. Kneeling over her was the familiar figure of the blonde boy she had met in the forest.

"Hey" he whispered. "You're finally awake!"

She tried to sit up but swayed, feeling dizzy. She felt him take hold of her shoulders and gently push her back down. His grip was warm- gentle but firm in guiding her back down into a lying position. "Don't try and get up- you need to rest" he continued to whisper.

"Why are you whispering?" she asked softly.

Matt smiled. "Because the others are asleep." He gestured to her right and Harmony turned her head to see several others lying on the ground asleep. Her eyes fell on the sight of a young girl and small white cat cuddled up against her digimon, Tigramon. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Tigramon!" she said loudly.

"Shhh! Do you want to wake everyone!" he said fiercely. She gave him a sheepish look.

"Sorry" Harmony then finally realised where she was and who she was with. She looked at him with awe.

"You guys are the digidestined!" she breathed. Matt nodded, saying nothing. She looked thoughtful. "Myotismon- he told me I am one too?" the blonde nodded again and she looked sad. "He told me a lot about you guys- and how he was going to kill you." She looked up at him with soulful violet eyes and he felt he was drowning in them. "I'm glad he didn't hurt you all"

Matt smiled at her words. "Yeah- but he hurt you." She fell silent and he watched with some amusement as her gaze wandered down to his chest where his crest hung.

"That- is your crest?" she asked with wonder. He smiled at her.

"Yep" He watched, holding his breath in anticipation as she reached out a slender hand to touch it. He shivered slightly as her hand accidentally brushed against his chest. She wrapped her fingers around it and pulled it towards her for closer inspection, causing him to lean in further. She looked up at him again.

"What does yours mean?" she asked in a whisper, her face close to his.

"It's the Crest of Friendship" he answered softly.

"HARMONY!" 

Matt fell back in surprise and swore under his breath as he landed on something pointy in his back pocket. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the culprit.

Harmony sat up and turned towards the owner of the voice. It was Tigramon. The cat bounded up and began licking and nuzzling her human friend.

"You're okay, I thought I'd never see you again…oh I missed you!" 

Harmony laughed at the excited digimon. Around her she heard the groans and moans of everyone waking. She frowned.

"Way to go Tigramon- ya just woke everybody up!" Kari and Gatomon, having been jolted awake when Tigramon rolled out from under them, were the first to see the girl awake.

"SHE'S AWAKE! SHE'S ALRIGHT!" Kari yelled. Tai rubbed his eyes and stretched.

"Take it easy sis" he yawned. "I mean, you are- HEY!" he spotted Harmony, Matt sitting next to her, looking at something he had found in his pocket. Everyone slowly made their way over to the girl and sat down in a semicircle around her. Matt sat behind her, still lost in thought as he looked at something in his hand. Harmony smiled as the brown-haired boy introduced himself.

"Hi! I'm Tai- and this is Agumon" he gestured to his digimon pal. The little dinosaur grinned.

"Hi!"

"Yeah- and this is Mimi and her digimon Palmon…Izzy and his digimon Tentomon…"

The boy called Tai went around the circle introducing everybody.

"And we are the-"

"Digidestined, yeah…Myotsimon explained everything to me." Harmony finished for him. He grinned.

"So I suppose you know that you are a digidestined too?" 

Harmony nodded. "Yeah- I was just talking to Matt about crests." This caused the blonde to look up, startled.

"Huh?- oh yeah…" 

The dark-haired girl began to speak again. "Pity I don't have my crest yet…" she sighed.

"Well…actually….I think I might have found it." Matt spoke up and everyone stared at him in amazement. The blonde shuffled over and sat down next to Harmony. He held up a necklace with a tag and crest attached. On it was a silver symbol, much like his own but with two arrows intertwined. He watched as Harmony's eyes widened in awe and surprise. She slowly took it from him and inspected it. Before anyone could ask him where he got it he began to speak.

"Just as we were getting out of that underground room I noticed something sparkle on the floor, but before I had the chance to look at it another piece of the roof fell, so I had to shove it in my pocket and make a run for it with Tsunomon" His digimon, who had digivolved back to Gabumon, grinned.

"I wonder what it was doing there…" Sora said aloud.

"Myotismon might have dropped it, he could have found it before us" Izzy went over possible explanations. Tai agreed.

"Probably..I think-"

"Where's my digivice?" Harmony interrupted. She began to panic. "I know I had it before…"

"I've got it!" Tai said and handed her the electronic piece. "Myotismon dropped it when Agumon attacked him"

She smiled at him gratefully. "Thank-you, you are all so nice" she said softly. Matt was puzzled as he realized how sad she seemed. Sora also had picked up on it,

"Are you okay Harmony?" she asked, concerned. The girl's head shot up as everyone looked at her.

"Oh-I- I'm fine…I just was ah…" she thought fast. "I just was thinking about what my crest could stand for" Matt didn't believe her and he knew Sora didn't either, but both wisely kept their council. The others seemed to accept her answer and began talking about what it could be.

"Well, whatever it is I guess we'll find out soon enough…Hey! Maybe Gennai knows" Tai said excitedly. Izzy nodded his head in agreement.

"Yes- I could send him an email and ask him. I'll get right onto it tomorrow, but now I think we should all get some sleep- we have had quite a day what with rescuing Harmony and all" he shot the girl a teasing smile and she blushed slightly as she realised what they had done for her.

"You know, I never properly thanked you for rescuing me" she said, embarrassed.

"Ehh…it was nothing really" Tai rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "We just attacked Myotismon…it was really Tigramon and Matt that saved you personally"

Harmony looked at Matt with surprise. "Really?"

It was the blonde's turn to be embarrassed. "Well…yeah. You should be thanking Tigramon though, she was the one I told to get you out of there" 

The girl smiled and turned to her digimon, hugging her. "Thanks Tigramon"

"Well," Tai yawned "I'm going back to sleep, anyone else gonna join me?"

Everyone nodded their heads and laid back down where they had been sleeping earlier. They murmured their goodnights and slowly drifted off to sleep. Harmony had just laid down and closed her eyes when she heard someone shuffle over next to her.

"Uh…Harmony?" She opened her eyes. It was Matt.

"Yeah?" she whispered. He produced something from behind his back.

"Is this your backpack?" Harmony looked up at him in surprise. "Yes- it is! Where did you find it?"

"It was back in the cave. I thought it might be yours so I grabbed it" 

She smiled and took it from him. "Thank-you!" her face then fell as she thought about something else she had possibly lost. As if reading her thoughts, Matt showed her what else he had found.

"Uh…there was also this guitar." The blonde almost melted as Harmony looked up at him with absolute delight.

"You found it!" she whispered loudly. She put the guitar down beside her and Matt turned to go, but halted as the girl's hand suddenly shot out and latched onto his arm. He almost fell onto her as she pulled him down and hugged him tight.

"Thank-you so much Matt!" she said softly, her voice choking with emotion.

"That's…okay…" he said with surprise, slowly wrapping his arms around her and returning the hug.

Although he was thin, he was still quite strong and Harmony felt that strength in his arms as they circled her waist, pulling her closer. She sighed softly, enjoying the feelings he evoked just by hugging her.

"You have no idea how much this means to me" she said, her voice saturated with happiness. Realising he had been hugging her for way too long, Matt pulled back. "I think I have a fair idea, I'd hate to lose my harmonica"

"You play the harmonica?" she remembered the beautiful music she had woken up to. A faint colour rose up on his cheeks. "Yeah" 

She smiled at him, but the smile slowly faded and was replaced with a sad look. "It was my brother who gave me my guitar." Matt now understood why it meant so much to her- particularly after hearing what Tigramon had to say about her brother.

"He must have cared a lot about you" Matt said, surprised that he was talking so easily about feelings and other such personal things; things he usually found hard to communicate.

She looked up at him and gave him a sad smile.

"Yeah- he did" she said softly. Matt had the overwhelming urge to hug her again but held himself in check. How would it look? Besides, he still couldn't understand what it was that he was feeling for her. It was different from any other emotion he felt when in the company of the others…even TK.

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He's so understanding…Harmony thought to herself._ He's cute too…_

She was horrified at herself when she realised what she had been thinking, AGAIN!…She couldn't have feelings for him…could she? After her brother died, she had distanced herself from everyone…hardening her heart to avoid any kind of relationship, so she couldn't be hurt again. She didn't want to feel or love. Everyone she had ever loved had been taken away from her. Hell, it was only just recently that she had brought down enough of the wall she had made to let Tigramon in…and she had known the digimon for two months! Two months with just the digimon for company. She envied Matt…to have the crest of friendship! She didn't really know what friendship was until Tigramon had come along.

Harmony realised that the two of them had been sitting in silence for some minutes. Matt seemed to also realise this and he stood up.

"'Night Harmony!" he whispered. He turned on his heels and walked away. Harmony watched as he laid down a short distance from her and drifted off to sleep.

She sighed and rolled over. Tigramon came over and laid down beside her, wrapping her three tails around the girl's body to keep her warm.

"He's nice!" the digimon purred in her ear. Harmony smiled.

"Yeah…he is…" were the last words she uttered as she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

Unknown to Harmony, Matt was actually still awake, but lay with his eyes closed.

"Psst…Matt!" The blonde turned his head to find his brother TK lying near him. He smiled at him.

"She's nice!" TK said brightly. Matt's mouth turned upwards in a small smirk.

"Yeah, she is" he replied, wondering what his bro was getting at.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you like her!" was the startling answer he was given.

"Wha-" but his younger brother had already rolled over and closed his eyes. The blonde lay down again and rolled his eyes at the absurd notion. Or was it absurd? Maybe he did like her…

He looked over at the sleeping form of Harmony. There was something about her…something that drew him to her. She made him feel accepted, comfortable. She made him want to open up and tell her everything, but Matt had always considered feelings and emotions to be dangerous, and to add to the mess he had no idea how to communicate what he was feeling to anyone anyway. If he got too close to Harmony, he felt he would possibly lose all hold on reality and he would have to communicate his emotions. It was a scary thought. He would do anything to avoid doing that. He looked in her direction once more and a new feeling of nervousness took over.

That was it. He would have to avoid getting close to her…

At all costs.

::winks:: heheh…told ya things would start to get interesting! Still want me to continue?

::grins:: until next time…


	5. Default Chapter Title

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THE CREST OF UNITY: Part Six

Well, I can't think of a thing to say this time, except a thank-you again to those who have read the story so far…your input is appreciated! So…on we go…::grins::

Harmony walked on at the back of the group with Tigramon, her line of vision directed at the ground. She stole a quick glance at the blonde-haired figure walking to her left, a few steps in front. Sighing, she thought about the events of the past couple of days. She had only joined the digidestined three days earlier and already she felt connected to them. The day after she had awoken and met everyone…and Matt had given her the crest and tag he had found…the old man the others called Gennai, had appeared. Tai hadn't hesitated in asking what her crest meant and the resulting answer was…interesting. The old man had named her crest 'The Crest of Unity' and said that it was an important addition to the others- as Harmony herself was. Everyone was, of course, just as confused as herself and asked him what he meant. But all Gennai said was they were soon to face an enemy ten times more powerful than Myotismon had been when they defeated him…and that she and Tigramon would play an important role in destroying him. Of course, all the digidestined turned to look at her and Tigramon at that point. Matt had seemed almost…afraid for her…like he cared about her. But over the past couple of days the blonde she had talked to that night under the stars had become cold and distant. When she had asked Sora why Matt was acting like that towards her, her reply consisted of 'he's always like that'. Harmony just couldn't believe he was truly like that- he had seemed so different when she had first woken…but as Tigramon had always said, 'appearances could be deceiving'. She glanced at his back once again and sighed. She just wished that in his case it wasn't so true…

Matt looked at Harmony out of the corner of his eye. She was staring at the ground in front of her as she walked, Tigramon loyally following her. He straightened his shoulders and looked straight ahead. God, she looked so sad…he knew part of it was because of how he was treating her, but he didn't know what else to do to keep his continually growing feelings for her at bay…but there was something else bothering her. She was holding something inside, something she couldn't- wouldn't let go of…and she would not allow anyone else to share her burdens.

'kinda reminds me of myself' Matt thought wryly. He'd begun to notice her emotions ever since she had looked so unhappy when first talking to the others and telling them how 'nice they all were'. The blonde glanced at Sora up ahead of him. He knew that she too had noticed Harmony's behaviour and he really wanted to talk to her about it. But that just wasn't his 'style'; he never acted concerned about anyone else if he could help it and if he talked to Sora about Harmony, it would just raise a whole lot of questions. Questions he didn't want to answer…questions he didn't think he _could _answer.

Matt mentally shook himself. He had to stop thinking about her…if he didn't stop whatever it was he was beginning to feel for the girl, he knew he wouldn't be able to. When he was in close proximity to her, he no longer could keep up his walls he had created…and if he let her in, surely he would have to let the others…and he still didn't feel ready to open up to anyone about his feelings or emotions. It was still too much to ask of him. He needed something to take his mind off of her…

Harmony sighed again. It was beginning to become a habit. She couldn't stop thinking about Matt…she needed something to take her mind off of him…

"hmhmhmhmmm…ignorant children! So unaware are they of impending doom" a shadowed figure chuckled, red eyes gazing into a large pit, the fire-like substance within reflecting the images of nine teens and their digimon. "They are foolish if they think they can win- don't you agree Puppetessamon?"

A wooden digimon stepped out of the shadows. She had long purple hair and resembled Puppetmon, but wore a pink fairy dress and tiara. She giggled.

"Oooh…yes you are right M'Lord! They may have defeated my idiot brother Puppetmon, but they shall not beat me: The Puppetess!" The shadow-cloaked Lord grinned evilly, his forked tongue flicking out of his mouth in delight.

"Well then what are you waiting for my dear? GO! DESTROY THEM!"

Puppetessamon ran from the castle and looked back once, a mischievous grin on her face.

"Well, I shall destroy them…but not until I've had a bit of fun with them first!" she muttered to herself before dancing off into the evening light. 

The digidestined sat down, exhausted after a long day's trekking. The day had been uneventful for them and all were quite pleased with the progress they had made.

"We have travelled quite a long way today- further than usual in fact" Izzy typed away on his laptop, mapping their journey.

"That could be because we haven't had to face any evil monsters!" Joe said with a hint of sarcasm. Sora rolled her eyes.

"Well Tai, are we stopping here for the night?"

The brown-haired boy looked around. They were near a stream, sheltered by some trees in quite a protected, quiet sort of area. He nodded his head.

"Yeah, may as well…this is as good a place as we're probably gonna find. Anyone willing to go find some fire-wood?"

"I will" both Matt and Harmony volunteered in unison. They looked at each other in horror. The only reason either of them was going was to get away from the other and think- but now they were each stuck with the one they had come to 'love to hate'! But they couldn't back out of it now…it would look too suspicious.

Matt looked around to see if Gabumon would come but was startled to find his digimon asleep on the ground. 'Boy, all that walking must have really tired him out' he thought to himself. In fact, each of the digimon were either asleep or resting; including Tigramon.

'Oh no' Harmony thought. 'Now we're gonna be totally alone…I could've handled it with Tigramon there but…oh no…'

"Well? Are you two going or not?" Tai said impatiently.

"Yeah yeah" Matt waved a hand in his direction. "We're going already!" He walked into the forest and after a moment's hesitation, Harmony followed.

They walked in silence side by side, pretending to look for fire-wood when in actual fact each of them were scared senseless at being alone with the other.

"Matt, I-"

"Harmony-"

They both started and stopped, turning to look at one another. Before they could continue, they heard uncontrollable giggling nearby. Matt stood in front of Harmony.

"Who's there?!" he demanded to know.

"My, you humans are such funny creatures! I could watch you all day!…But it would be so much more fun to play with you!" 

"Matt! Look!" Harmony said in surprise, pointing at something above them. Matt moved back, pulling Harmony with him and his mouth dropped open in surprise at what he saw. Sitting on a branch just above them was a puppet-like digimon…one that looked quite familiar to Matt, but yet…more girlish.

"Who's that?" Harmony whispered to Matt, but he payed no attention to her.

"Puppetmon?" he asked in disbelief. The digimon giggled again.

"NO silly! I am PuppeTESSamon! Puppetmon's sister!"

Matt was speechless; things still took him by surprise in the digiworld…anything seemed possible.

"What do you want?!" he asked with suspicion. After dealing with Puppetmon, he wasn't about to trust the digimon's relative!

Puppetessamon pouted.

"I just want to play with you!"

"Huh?" Harmony asked in confusion. Matt also was bewildered.

"Well, actually my Lord told me to destroy you and your friends, but I thought I'd have a little fun first!" she said cheerfully, waving a little star-wand around in the air.

"Wha-?" the two teens began to ask in unison before being lifted up several feet into the air. Both yelled as they were twisted around. Harmony screamed as she was hung upside-down.

"My God! What's happening Matt?!" she cried out, but before the blonde could answer, Puppetessamon cut in.

"I'm just playing with you!" she giggled. "Let's play a game!" she put a wooden finger to her chin in thought, letting Matt and Harmony hover in mid-air, staring at each other in bewilderment. The digimon clapped her hands as a great idea for a game came to mind, and the two teens whipped their heads around to look at her.

"I know what to play!" she cried out in excitement. "Let's play dolls!"

Harmony did not like where this was headed. Puppetessamon grinned mischievously at them. "but to make it more interesting, we can play dolly dress-ups!"

Matt did not like the sound of that. The blonde felt himself being turned around and suddenly felt a cool draft against his legs and chest. That's strange…he looked down and almost cried out when he realised all his clothes had vanished apart from his underwear! He heard laughing from behind him and swung his arms around to help him turn. As he finished his 180 he discovered it was Harmony laughing and he felt himself turning a deep red.

"Nice boxers Matt!" she grinned at him shyly. Matt felt embarrassed and reacted the only way he knew how. 

"Do you mind?!" he said angrily. He turned his back on her and was about to yell at her in annoyance to cover up what he was feeling towards her, when he heard her scream. Matt whipped himself around and had he been on the ground he would have fell back in surprise. He watched in shock as Harmony's clothes dissolved off her body before his eyes, leaving her in her bra and underwear. He felt a new feeling of intense heat wash over his body as he stared at her in awe. God she really was beautiful…

He realised he had been staring and glanced up into Harmony's face to find her features contorted with annoyance.

"Do I mind? DO I MIND? LOOK AT ME!!!" she yelled at him. Matt didn't mind obeying her at all.

"WAIT! I take that back…just…ah hell! FORGET IT!" she waved her hand in the air in annoyance, crossing her arms. A small smirk crept up on Matt's face. She did look pretty funny…not to mention enticing…

The blonde slapped himself mentally…'Man, I gotta stop doing that!' he muttered to himself.

"Now- what shall we dress you in?" Puppetessamon spoke up with amusement in her voice. She spun her little wand around in the air and Matt floated towards her.

"Hmmm…I know! We'll put on a dance party! So we should go formal all the way…" she clapped her hands together again in excitement and Matt scowled at her. She pouted.

"Aw….aren't you having fun? Would you rather me kill you now?" he looked at her, startled.

"NO! He's having fun!" the blonde turned his head to look at Harmony who had said this. She gave him a 'just go with it look' and he sighed. The digimon grinned.

"YAY! So let's see…hmmm, ever worn a tuxedo before?" she waved the wand in the air and slowly a white shirt, black pants, tie and dinner jacket appeared on him. The digimon studied Matt for a moment.

"No- you look better without the tie!" she snapped her fingers and the black tie disappeared, the top button on the shirt undoing itself. Puppetessamon made a spinning motion with her fingers and the blonde spun around to face Harmony.

"What do you think?" she grinned. For a moment the black-haired girl was speechless.

"Lookin'…good…" she said breathlessly, stunned by how handsome Matt looked when dressed up…although she thought him to be cute all the time. She shook her head.

'I gotta stop doing that!' she said to herself. The digimon smiled.

"I'm glad you love my work- now to have fun with you!" Harmony felt suspicious all of a sudden.

"Huh?" but Puppetessamon would not answer. She turned to Matt and waved a finger at him.

"Now, no peeking!" and the blonde was blindfolded.

"Hey that's unfai-" but found he could not speak for he was gagged too. All he could hear were stifled noises of surprise from Harmony and the occasional yell…as well as the annoying giggling coming from the puppet-digimon. 

"There! All done!" Suddenly Matt could see and talk again and found himself facing Puppetessamon.

"Where's Harmony?!" he demanded to know. The digimon sat down on the branch again in triumph.

"Right behind you!" Matt was spun around again and his look of anger faded into one of pure awe and shock as he laid his eyes on the sight before him. There in front of him floated Harmony, wearing a beautiful, white, low cut dress that hugged her body and fluttered against her thighs. It was short in front but the back was longer and a trail of white satin billowed up behind her, making her look like a bright evening star in the twilight shadows. Transparent pieces of material were strapped to her wrists creating a halo around her and she had every bit the angelic look…Harmony definitely looked like an angel to Matt…his guardian angel.

"Well? What do you think? Don't you like my handiwork?" the digimon pouted.

"No…no! She's…gorgeous!" Matt breathed and the white-garbed girl looked up at Matt shyly, with bright violet eyes; the eyes he was growing to love. He shook his head.

'Stop it Matt! Get a _grip_!' he thought angrily. Why couldn't he control the way he was feeling?! The digimon clapped her hands again.

"HURRAY! Now we can have the dance party!"

Matt and Harmony stared at each other in awe and then looked down as they slowly floated to the ground. But instead of landing on soft grass, their shoed feet tapped against a shiny hard floor. The two teens looked around to find themselves standing on a plateau of some sort, made of what appeared to be starry marble. Suddenly they could hear the strains of a beautiful melody. As it grew louder they both recognized it as a sort of waltz.

"Now DANCE!" Puppetessamon commanded.

"WHAT?! You can't be serious!" Matt asked, hoping it was a joke. The digimon pouted again but this time in anger.

"Okay then- you would rather be killed!" she raised her wand as if to strike them down but Harmony stepped in front of Matt.

"No, no! We were just wondering what type of dancing…" she listened to the music and recognized the ¾ timing. "Do you mean waltz?"

"YES!" the digimon nodded vigorously. "Now DANCE!" she screamed at them and Harmony jumped into action, grabbing Matt's hand. He pulled away.

"Look, I don't want to do this!" he said angrily. She frowned at him. "Well, would you rather be killed?!" the blonde remained silent and Harmony suddenly realised what was wrong. A small smirk crept up on her face.

"You don't know how to dance, do you?" she grinned at him. Matt crossed his arms and turned his head away from her. "Of course I do!" she noticed a faint blush creeping up his cheeks.

"No you don't! C'mon, it's easy to waltz…just follow me!" she smiled genuinely at him and held out her hand. Matt stared at it for a few seconds before taking it in his own.

"So…what do you do?" he sighed. Harmony took him by the shoulders and turned him so he was completely facing her. She grabbed his left hand and took it in her right. The blonde looked awkward for a few seconds, realising what she wanted him to do. The black-haired girl sighed and grabbed his right hand, placing it on her waist. She put her left hand on his shoulder and was about to dance but stopped. She shook her head.

"You can't dance like that!" she sighed

"HEY! It's not as if I've done this before!" Matt shot back.

"Look! Do you want to live or die cause it all depends on whether or not you dance…we don't have our digimon to help us at the moment okay?!" she said to him fiercely. Matt clenched his teeth in annoyance.

"Al…Right!" he huffed. "So what did I do wrong?"

"It's not what you did do, it's what you _didn't_ do!"

"Huh?!" the blonde was confused.

"I'm waiting!" Puppetessamon was getting annoyed. Harmony hurriedly began to explain.

"It's hard to dance when you're so far away…try this."

She pulled him in closer and leaned up against him. Matt felt his heart begin to race at the close contact and his mouth began to dry out. As he felt the heat in him rise again he let Harmony take his hand that was on her hip and pull it around so his arm circled her waist, his hand pressed into the small of her back.

Harmony held back a gasp of delight as his glove-less hand ran across her bare back, just brushing the edge of the fabric of her backless dress.

"uh..no-now follow me…" she stuttered. "Wh- when I move my right foot back, you move your left foot forward…" she said breathlessly. At first Matt watched their feet closely, imitating her movements to the one, two, three beat. As the blonde got the hang of it he looked up into Harmony's eyes. She suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" he whispered to her. 

"This isn't right. Because I'm teaching you, I'm leading…but because you are the male, you are supposed to lead me…you know? Show me where to go…" she trailed off. He shrugged. "Well, okay…" He took over and began to lead her around the marble floor Puppetessamon had created. The digimon started to clap.

"YAY! You're good!" 

Harmony was surprised by how quickly Matt had picked it up. Although their movements were jerky and clumsy at first, they grew more fluid and graceful as the seconds ticked by. She felt herself relaxing into his arms as they continued with the waltz when suddenly her white heel caught in a crack in the floor. As she went down, Harmony was surprised to feel herself being caught in mid-air. Matt had stepped forward, catching her with the arm he had around her waist, leaning her back. Her leg was in the air and she titled her head back, seeing everything upside down, her hair dusting the floor. She looked up to find herself staring into a pair of gorgeous, dark-blue eyes she loved so well.

"Is this one of your dance moves?" Matt grinned. Before she could answer, they heard clapping and whistling to the side. 

"Way to go Matt!" they saw Tai grinning wildly. Gomamon whistled.

"Looking good Harmony!" 

"Guys quit it! We're being controlled by Puppetessamon!" Matt yelled at them.

"puppet-who? Oh yeah sure...like we are gonna fall for that-" Joe started but stopped as they all caught sight of the new digimon.

"HaHA! Now that you are all here, I can destroy you! I was becoming bored with my new playthings anyway" she gestured at Matt and Harmony.

"Prepare to die digidestined!"

"Don't be so sure of yourself Puppetessamon!" Tai said boldly. Harmony and Matt ran off the marble floor and jumped down onto the grass to stand beside their friends. The blonde ran to Gabumon while Tigramon jumped up and licked her human friend. They turned to stare at the new digimon, who was laughing loudly.

"Oh that's rich! ASTRAL WHIP!" she yelled. The wand she held began to glow and Puppetessamon swung it in down in an arc. Suddenly blinding light burst forth from the wand and came flying towards them. 

"GET DOWN EVERYONE!" Izzy yelled and they all hit the ground with a thud as the electricity sizzled over their heads.

"Agumon digivolve too…GREYMON!!"

"Tentomon digivolve to… KABUTERIMON!!"

All the digimon began to digivolve and attack Puppetessamon, but she dodged them easily and repeated her own attack. This time she managed to hit Greymon and Garurumon and the electricity surrounded both then dissolved in a magnificent light display. Both appeared to be unharmed and they looked around confused. Tai and Matt grinned. 

"That's it? You're gonna have to do better that that!" the brown-haired boy yelled at her. The puppet digimon just smirked.

"ATTACK!" she yelled. Suddenly Garurumon and Greymon's eyes began to glow red. They turned on the teens with a snarl and advanced on them. Matt and Tai were taken aback.

"Garurumon! What are you doing?!"

"GREYMON! Puppetessamon's behind you! You're going the wrong way!" 

"Nova Blast!" The digimon yelled and fire streamed from his mouth towards his friend. Tai jumped out of the way.

"What are you doing? We're your friends! She's the enemy!" he pointed to the puppet-digimon. Greymon just roared and Garurumon snarled at them. 

"What's going on?!" Matt yelled angrily. Izzy was typing away on his laptop and he gasped as he came across something.

"Guys- you have to see this! Puppetessamon's attack, 'Astral Whip' is a form of mind control! Whatever it touches comes under her power-" he stopped as Garurumon's howling blaster came close to hitting him.

"YEAH? AND?" Matt yelled at him.

"Uh-" Izzy hurriedly began tapping away at the keyboard again. "Well, this basically means she is using telepathic control on your digimon!"

"Wait a second…does this mean she is a kind of psychic digimon?" Harmony interrupted him. Izzy nodded and the black-haired girl grinned, turning to Tigramon who mirrored her expression.

"I'm on it Harmony!" her digimon yelled and leaped in front of them all, standing in Puppetessamon's way.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Matt yelled and the others all watched in horror as Tigramon bounded towards their enemy.

"I HAVE A PLAN!" Harmony yelled and they all turned to look at her. "Everybody get their digimon to attack Greymon and Garurumon!" Matt and Tai were about to protest but she interrupted.

"Don't get them to hurt them, but just keep them occupied!" they all looked towards Tai who shrugged.

"Just do as she says!" he said, for lack of anything better for a plan. The digimon at once closed in on Garurumon and Greymon and began playing a fierce game of a cat and mouse with them. All the kids looked towards Harmony and followed her gaze to Tigramon.

"CONFUSION!" her digimon had yelled at the same time as Puppetessamon unleashed her attack. "ASTRAL WHIP!" The two were now involved in an intense battle of will. The puppet-digimon's attack was hovering in mid-air, meeting with some unseen force. As Tigramon's body was glowing blue with concentration it became obvious it was her doing.

"What's happening?" Mimi watched with awe, voicing everyone's thoughts. They all turned to look at Harmony who was standing with clenched fists, silently cheering Tigramon on. She turned to look at them.

"They are fighting for telepathic control of the other. This is our chance! See that wand Puppetessamon has?" she began to explain. They all nodded. "That is what she is using to control the digimon. If we can destroy it, we'll win!"

They all understood now and quickly discussed ways of retrieving the wand.

"Hey- why not get Birdramon to swoop down and grab it?!" Joe blurted out.

"Great idea Joe!" Sora said in agreement. "Birdramon! Steal Puppetessamon's wand!"

"Alright Sora!" the giant bird swooped down, crashing into the puppet-digimon as she grabbed hold of the wand with her claws.

"Hey! That's mine! Give it ba-" their enemy began to scream but was halted in mid-sentence as Tigramon's attack came at her with full force. She now had to fight the cat with her own power, only just keeping the attack at bay. Harmony's digimon snarled and narrowed her eyes in determination, beginning to sweat from over-exertion. Birdramon flew overhead and dropped the wand into Sora's hands.

"Yes- hey, OUCH!" the girl dropped the wand on the floor.

"What's wrong Sora?" Tai asked concerned. 

"It's hot!" 

Matt bent over to pick it up and fell back with a yell as his hand touched it.

"What happened Matt?" Izzy asked, confused.

"It gave me an electric shock!" he said angrily. Each of them puzzled over this and tried to pick it up. Harmony gasped.

"Of course! A psychic shield!"

"Wha-?" they all began to ask her, but were interrupted by Izzy.

"Uh- Guys?" they turned to look at him and followed his gaze towards Tigramon who was slowly losing power and growing weaker by the second. "As long as Puppetessamon's wand is in existence, she still has control over your digimon! Her power won't dissolve until it has been destroyed. What's this about a 'psychic shield' Harmony?" he turned to the girl.

"It's a form of protection…like an energy field. You can put it around yourself to block attacks or it can be placed on inanimate objects to keep them safe…or in this case, from being destroyed."

"So how do we get rid of the 'psychic shield' and smash this thing?" Matt said angrily. Harmony glared at him.

"Like this!" she closed her eyes and began to breathe slowly in concentration. The digidestined watched in awe as her hands began to glow the same blue as Tigramon. The black-haired girl reached down and picked up the wand. She gasped slightly as if in pain and Matt took a step forward, clenching and unclenching his fists in anticipation, hoping she wasn't being hurt. The others all jumped back slightly as the wand began to glow and sparks started to fly. Mimi screamed as it suddenly shattered into a thousand pieces and they all turned to see Puppetessamon roaring in pain as she dissolved into thousands of data shards. Matt and Harmony looked down at their bodies in surprise as their original clothes appeared in the places of the formal ones. Harmony ran to Tigramon as her digimon collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. The others digivolved back to their rookie forms, running to their human friends. Agumon and Gabumon were lying unconscious on the ground and Tai and Matt ran to their digimon, hoping they were okay.

Gabumon groaned and Agumon rubbed his eyes.

"What happened?" Tai and Matt grinned.

"We'll explain later" said the brown-haired boy. "Right now, I think some-one else has some explaining to do" he turned to look at Harmony who was cradling Tigramon's head in her lap. The others all walked over to her.

"So- how'd you do that?" Matt voiced the question going through all heads. She looked at them startled and lowered her head sadly.

"Telekinesis" she said simply.

"Yes- we know, but how…how did you learn to do that?" Izzy spoke up. Everyone murmured his or her agreement. Sora was surprised to see tears glistening in her eyes.

"Look- it's a long story…"

"We have all the time in the world" said Matt, crossing his arms.

"I- I'd rather not, I mean…oh! Tigramon!" her digimon stirred in her arms and the dark-haired girl was glad for the interruption.

"Did we win…Harmony?" the cat whispered. She smiled. "Yep, we did"

"Yeah- all thanks to you!" Kari said cheerfully.

"Yeah, you were great!" T.K joined in, praising the digimon.

"We should probably head back to camp" Tai spoke up and looked at Tigramon.

"Can you walk?" the cat nodded. "I'll…try"

The others all grouped together and began walking back, talking nineteen to the dozen. Matt was at the back with Gabumon and he turned to see Harmony walking very slowly, keeping pace with her limping digimon. She looked up at him and blushed, remembering what happened just before the fight. Matt did the same and tuned away, walking quickly to catch up to the others. Ha looked at the ground and kicked a stone. So much for his plan to stay away from Harmony…he couldn't help himself. Where had his will power gone? The blonde clenched his fists in annoyance at himself. He would have to try harder.

"What's up Matt?" 

The blonde was startled when he heard the voice of his digimon, Gabumon beside him.

"Oh-nothing"

"It isn't nothing! C'mon Matt, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" he said to his digimon in annoyance, then calmed down. "Sorry Gabumon"

"That's okay!" 

"It's nothing really-" Matt continued, lost in thought. "I'll get over it"

He glanced back once more at Harmony who was talking to Tigramon.

Or at least he hoped he would get over it.

PHEW! This took a REALLY long time to write so I hope you appreciate it! ::grins:: See ya in the next chapter! 


	6. Default Chapter Title

****

THE CREST OF UNITY: Part 7

Hmmm….nope, nothing to say…so let's just save some time and get on with story huh? OH: just to avoid some unhappy confrontations…I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON!!! [::sigh:: Like I really needed to point that out….duh J ]

::grins:: So…the part you've been waiting for….

COMPLICATIONS

Izzy watched the firelight flicker over Harmony's face, completely hypnotised by her violet eyes as she smiled at him shyly.

"I…dunno…" she said, embarrassed. Izzy smiled encouragingly.

"Come on Harmony, we haven't heard one note out of that instrument of yours!"

"Yeah- we'd like to hear you play!" Sora agreed.

The sun had just set and they were all sitting around the fire Matt and TK had put together. Just as their nightly conversations began, Tai had noticed Harmony sitting a small distance away from the group, tuning her guitar. Since none of them had seen or heard her play since meeting her, the brown-haired boy was curious about the girl's hidden talent. Pointing out the fact that they hadn't heard her play, the pleas began from the rest of the group to hear her. Izzy was the most persistent. Unknown to the rest of the group, the computer whiz had developed a small crush on the newest digidestined and had an overwhelming desire to get to know her better.

"Please? For me?" he grinned at her hopefully. Harmony was surprised by his request and slowly shuffled forward to join the rest of the group. She sat down on a log next to TK and Kari, opposite Matt and Izzy. She smiled at the young scientific genius.

"Alright…if you really want me to" she said softly. Matt narrowed his eyes as he looked from Izzy to Harmony, noticing the small looks Izzy was giving Harmony. For some reason the blonde couldn't help but feel…jealous? He frowned to himself but looked up as the violet-eyed girl strummed out a few chords then stopped.

"Hmmm…what should I play…" she said aloud, more to herself than anyone. Tigramon spoke up.

"I have always loved that song…that you wrote for your brother when he died" the cat said softly. The guitarist looked down sadly.

"You write your own songs?" Matt said in surprise. She nodded her head and remained silent.

"So what song did you write for your brother?" Gomamon spoke up.

"Shhh! Gomamon! You could be a little more sensitive…" Joe tried to hush his digimon but Harmony shook her head.

"No- it's okay…" she took a deep breath. "Do you really want to hear it?"

When they all nodded she sighed and poised her hand over the guitar, looking down at the strings. She continued to speak but kept her head down, trying to hide the tears that were forming in the corners of her eyes.

"It's called…Tears in Heaven" she started playing a beautiful melody and began to sing softly.

__

Would you know my name

If I saw you in heaven?

Would it be the same

If I saw you in heaven?

I must be strong…

And carry on…

Cause I know, I don't belong…

Here in heaven

Would you hold my hand

If I saw you in heaven?

Would you help me stand

If I saw you in heaven?

I'll find my way…

Through night and day…

Cause I know, I just can't stay…

Here in heaven

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knee

Time can break your heart, have you begging please…

Begging please!

The other girls all began to cry silently and the boys sniffed, pretending they had something in their eyes, as Harmony began a small guitar interlude. The notes floated on the air and Izzy realised that although the girl was unapproachable and emotionless on the outside, she was crying on the inside. Even if she did not communicate her feelings aloud at other times…she gave a part of herself to them through song. He could almost feel her pain as the notes swirled about him, dissolving into the night sky.

Matt listened carefully to the song and Harmony's skilled playing. Like himself, music was a scapegoat for her to express her feelings and emotions. The blonde found he had more and more in common with her each day he spent in her company. He watched her face, her eyes closed…feeling and living the music like he enjoyed doing.

Beyond the door

There's peace I'm sure

And I know, there'll be no more

Tears in Heaven

Would you know my name

If I saw you in heaven?

Would it be the same

If I saw you in heaven?

I must be strong…

And carry on…

Cause I know, I don't belong…

Here in heaven.

Cause I know, I don't belong…

Here in heaven.

She finished up the song slowly and looked up at them all sadly, biting her lip.

"Hey…ya know, I'm feeling kinda tired" she sniffed. "Hope you don't mind if I go to sleep now?" Harmony said sadly. Tai blinked, shaking himself out of a coma-like state.

"Uh..no, sure…'Night"

"Goodnight. C'mon Tigramon" she said and both her and her digimon left the small circle. Everyone chorused their goodnights also.

"Yeah- I think I'll go to sleep too" said Sora, stretching her arms up.

"Yes- me three!" Mimi yawned behind a gloved hand and blinked sleepily.

"Me four!" Gatomon added, curling up on Kari's lap. They all decided to go to sleep and scattered themselves around the dwindling fire. Matt lay down a short distance from TK as he usually did, subtly playing the 'protective brother' bit. Just before he closed his eyes he gazed around, looking for Harmony; a new habit he had gotten himself into. As his eyes caught sight of Tigramon, the blonde frowned. The guitarist always slept next to her digimon, but the girl was nowhere in sight.

Looking around once more to see all his friends gradually drifting off to sleep, Matt cautiously rose to his feet and quietly walked over to the large cat digimon. Tigramon raised her head sleepily.

"Oh- it's you." She yawned. The blonde nodded.

"Yeah- it's me, do you know where Harmony is?" he whispered

The cat nodded. "Yes- she went for a short walk- she wanted to be alone for a while" she said softly and turned her head, nodding towards the path they had just travelled. "She went that way"

Matt frowned slightly. "Oh- well, 'Night Tigramon"

"Goodnight Matt" the digimon trailed off, her head falling down on her paws in deep sleep. The blonde looked in the direction Harmony had taken and once back at his friends, before slowly making his way towards the trail the dark-haired girl had taken. 

Harmony stood on the edge of the hill, looking down into the darkened valley below. The moon was full, illuminating the area, and the night sky was bright with stars-, none of which were familiar to her. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, savouring the fresh air and light breeze blowing through her hair, scattering the black waves about her face. Just as she began to lose herself in a deep trance she came to, hearing soft footfalls behind her.

"Harmony?"

"Hey Matt" she said softly, knowing whom it was without turning around. She stayed as she was, silent and still, as the blonde wandered over to stand next to her.

"Why- why did you come out here?" he asked, though he knew the answer already.

"To think about my brother"

She fell silent and he said nothing, just stood next to her, lost in thought. Harmony did not turn to look at him but gazed down at the valley below.

"You have no idea how lucky you are…you still have your brother" she said softly. Matt frowned at her, unable to respond to the surprising statement.

"I think I do…I don't know what I'd do if something happened to TK…he means as much to me as I suppose your brother did to you-" he said, cutting himself off as he realised he was beginning to open up. He was surprised to see Harmony shake her head slightly.

"Yes and no…you are just brothers…Andante and I were more than siblings…we were twins"

The blonde remained silent…he couldn't figure out what she was thinking…She was the one to fill the void.

"A twin…is something special. They like, know you…in this way…We weren't two separate people, but each one half of a whole. When he died, a part of me died with him…he wasn't just my brother…he was my best friend."

Matt turned to look at her, and between the strands of hair blowing about her face he noticed the tears running down her cheeks. The blonde clenched his fists. He could handle it when someone sobbed out loud, but there was something about silent crying…when there was no sound…that scared him. Ignoring his mind for once he listened to his heart and moved closer to Harmony, slowly reaching out to clasp the crying girl's hand. It was all he could think of to do…he was too afraid to hug her, for he knew if he did his resolve would probably crumble beneath him…as it was, his decision to avoid getting close to her was on shaky ground.

And as he stood there, holding the dark-haired girl's hand, he couldn't help but feel that that ground had already fallen out from under him…

"Come on Harmony! Give it back!" Izzy couldn't help but grin at the elfish look Harmony was giving him, after nicking off with his laptop.

"Not until you admit you are wrong!" she laughed, keeping just out of his reach as he chased after her. The young computer whiz collapsed against a rock, panting, and rubbed the back of his neck. He smiled, glad to see and hear her laugh…it was a beautiful sound to hear. It was the first time she had acted so carefree and happy after joining up with them…she kept so silent and was by herself a lot…kinda like Matt…

Izzy frowned briefly as he thought about the rebel, and couldn't help but wonder if the blonde had feelings for her too…He shook his head and stood at the same time Harmony did, ready to chase after her again.

"Please Harmony? Give me back my laptop?!" he pleaded with her but she shook her head.

"Not on your life! As I said- not until you admit YOU are wrong!" she said breathlessly.

The young scientific genius had been showing the girl how to use the laptop when the interesting subject of fighting came up…whether girls or boys were better fighters. Of course, he had said boys…backing up his statement with one of his theories as usual. He had mistakenly told her that boys would always be better fighters for girls had a natural instinct to keep the peace. He tried to prove this by using Sora as an example- she was always trying to prevent Tai and Matt from fighting. Of course, although Harmony secretly agreed a bit, she was offended and immediately began arguing with him. When he still would not back down she grabbed his laptop and ran off with it, refusing to give it back until he admitted he was wrong. 

The frustrated Izzy ran a hand through his hair and looked around for help. There was no-one around for everyone had gone to a nearby lake for a swim…including all the digimon. He, of course, had stayed behind to work on his computer…and Harmony…well, Harmony just seemed to want to be by herself for a while…but that plan had soon been abandoned. Just then Tentomon flew by. The digimon had been taking a nap when the others had decided to go swimming, and was only now going to join them.

"Tentomon! Quick! Get my laptop off of Harmony!" the digimon was startled but did as requested, soon getting involved in a game of tug-of-war with the guitarist over the laptop. Izzy used the distraction to tackle the girl and wrestle her to the ground. Tentomon took the computer and set it down by Izzy's bag.

"If you don't mind Izzy, I'm gonna go swimming now! Is that okay?"

"Sure- go…for it…" he said, trying to keep the dark-haired girl pinned to the ground.

"Gee thanks! Uh…have fun doing…whatever it is you humans are…doing…" the digimon trailed off, watching the wrestling match with curiosity before flying off.

Izzy did not notice his digimon go, for he had straddled the girl's waist, managing to capture her flailing wrists, pinning them to the ground. He grinned at the annoyed look she gave him.

"Now what were you saying about girls being better fighters?"

She scowled at him briefly.

"Unfair! You used your digimon! That's interference-" she broke off when she realised he was just teasing her. Harmony sighed and gave him a small smile. She turned her head to look at her wrists, which he held tightly in his grasp to keep her down. "I guess we have come to a standstill" she laughed. "Since you think you are so right- and you think girls are such peacemakers- this is the time I'd shake hands with you and agree to disagree…which I would do, if my hands weren't presently unavailable!" she said, annoyed.

"Oh I'll let you go…but not until you receive your punishment for stealing my laptop!" he grinned at her evilly. Her eyes widened in surprise as he let go of her wrists only to move his hands down to her sides, tickling her fiercely. She giggled and began to laugh louder and louder as he continued to tickle her. No-one but her brother had tried to do it before…and no-one had done it as well as him…until now. She laughed until the tears were streaming down her face and she was gasping for breath, wriggling beneath him, begging him to stop. Suddenly he did as she asked and just stared into her eyes. Harmony slowly stopped laughing and wondered what was up as he began to lean forward, as if he was going to say something serious to her.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" they heard an angry voice to the side. Izzy and Harmony both looked towards the source of the noise.

It was Matt.

"Get off of her" he said between clenched teeth, hands made into fists, staring angrily at the redhead. Marching up to them he stood towering over the computer whiz, glaring at the poor teen. The guitarist watched in fear and surprise as the blonde confronted her…his…friend.

Matt poked Izzy in the chest.

"I might expect something like this from Tai but not YOU! I can't believe you would do…this…" he trailed off, seething.

"Do what, Matt?" Izzy replied calmly.

"YOU! Rolling around with her like that!" he began, but clammed up, having no idea how to finish his argument. Harmony's eyes widened in surprise as she realised what was wrong.

"Wait! It's not what you think! It was just a bit of innocent fun…"

"Yeah, I bet you were having fun!" he turned on her, stinging the guitarist with his sharp words.

"I'm outta here!" he stormed past them and the dark-haired girl jumped to her feet.

"WAIT! Matt!" she was about to go after him but Izzy stopped her.

"Now may not be such a good time, Harmony" he tried to reason with her and she pulled away.

"I- I know…I- I gotta get outta here…" she ran off in the opposite direction, grabbing up her guitar as she went. Izzy sighed.

"Woah- what was that about?!" 

He turned to see Tai and the rest of the gang behind him. Realising they must have come up with Matt, he blushed slightly.

"Uh- I'm not particularly sure…" he trailed off, knowing the others didn't believe him.

"Ahem…ah…if you'll excuse me, I have some work to attend to on my laptop" he walked off quickly and grabbed his computer.

"Well- that was weird" Joe broke the silence that had formed.

"Yeah…totally!" Palmon agreed.

"Hmmm… a little too weird" Sora said to herself as everyone spread out around their campsite. 

There was something strange about their behaviour…

Suddenly Sora's crest began to glow faintly and she looked up in shock.

"Of course…"

****

THE CREST OF UNITY: Part 8

"RARGGHH!" Pyscheromon slammed his fist down on the table in anger as news of Puppetessamon's defeat reached him. His lackeys that were present in the room jumped and looked at one another, bewildered. Suddenly a large cobra-like digimon slithered in.

"Ahem…announcing the arrival of Lady Teleoromon" it hissed and all the evil digimon bowed down as a woman entered the room, swathed in black and red satin that clung to her body and swirled about her feet.

"Well?"

Pyscheromon bowed before her, his head down.

"They are still alive my Lady" his forked tongue flicked out of his mouth to lick his lips in fear. The female digimon screamed and swung her hands down in an arc. The devilish male found himself flying through the air and crashed into the wall at the far end of the room. He crumpled to the ground and groaned, clenching his fangs together in pain.

"You PROMISED you would kill the digidestined and you have failed me! You will pay!" she lifted her arms high and they began to glow blue. Pyscheromon struggled to his feet and turned in fear.

"No! Please! I know it is my fault they still live, but it is a fault that can be repaired…I now know that I cannot send out a mere subject to do the job- I must go myself. I have failed you once, but I can promise you I won't again!" he said fiercely. Lady Teleoromon lowered her hands and watched him with keen interest.

"Very well Lord Pyscheromon…but listen to me…if I hear that you _have _failed me again…I swear I will kill you!" she pointed towards him, sparks flying from the palm of her hand. She swung her fists downward and two small explosions of fire spiraled up around her. All the other digimon shuddered in fear and the shadow lord lowered his eyes to the floor. He could tell she was angry- and meant her threat- for her form had mutated into a hideous monster with snake-hair that hissed and waved about meancingly. He gulped down the feeling of wanting to vomit as a black substance dripped from her fangs, her own green, forked tongue licking up the substance.

"Remember…you fail, you DIE!" she hissed at him before disappearing in a puff of smoke. All the evil digimon looked at the spot she had vanished from in awe then turned to stare at Pyscheromon. He looked up, shaken, and then stood tall, snarling at them.

"What are you looking at?! GO!" he yelled and they all hurried out of the room. The vampirish devil turned to look into the glowing fire that still held the forms of nine teens and their digimon.

"hmmmhmhmmm…never send an amateur to do a master's job!" he chuckled under his breath. He raised his arms above his head like Lady Teleoromon had done and began to evaporate into black light. He looked into the fire one last time and narrowed his eyes.

"Say your prayers digidestined!" he clapped his hands and dissolved completely into the blackness. The substance floated towards a nearby window and streamed out into the evening light, racing towards the horizon.

Matt kicked a stone as he walked back to camp, having cooled down enough to return to the others. But the anger began to boil up in him again as he though about Izzy sitting on Harmony like that. She was smiling and seemed so happy….he couldn't believe she liked Izzy. The blonde clenched his fists in jealously and quickened his pace, trying to walk off his mood. _Dammit, it should have been him that Harmony was with- not that computer nerd…_

He stopped when he realised what he had been thinking. Wait a second…he had been trying to avoid getting close to Harmony; if she liked the computer whiz then she was Izzy's problem…not his. 

Matt thought he would feel relieved at having an obstacle in the way of him and the girl…but instead he felt worse than ever…

Suddenly he heard screaming and the faint sounds of battle in the distance. The blonde's eyes widened in surprise and fear as he realised it was coming from the campsite. He ran the rest of the distance, not watching where he was going as he raced towards his friends. He cried out as he collided with something hard, but forgiving…something that groaned in pain as he landed on top of it…or more specifically…_her_.

"Owww…" Harmony groaned and opened her eyes to find herself staring into Matt's face, the blonde lying on top of her.

"Harmony?" he said in surprise at the same time she asked "Matt?"

She blushed. "Uh yeah…" but the harmonica-player wasn't listening as he jumped up, pulling her with him.

"Quick…the others are in trouble"

"Yeah- I know- I heard the sounds of fighting so I came running!" she replied, having thought the same as Matt. He grabbed her hand without a second thought and the dark-haired girl only had enough time to grab her guitar, which she had dropped, before being dragged along behind the blonde.

"Harmony!"

"Matt!"

Gabumon and Tigramon ran towards them.

"Good- you're back! I can digivolve now!" Gabumon grinned in determination, ready to fight alongside his friends.

"Oh if only I could digivolve!" Tigramon cried out in annoyance. Harmony sighed.

"I'm sorry Tigramon- my crest hasn't started glowing yet."

"That's alright Harmony! You and Tigramon were fine just as you were when we faced Puppetessamon" Matt tried to comfort the sad girl, knowing what it felt like before his crest had started to glow. Her digimon shook her head,

"Although I do agree in some ways, I am pretty sure we aren't going to do so well this time."

As the campsite came into view they saw MetalGreymon go flying back, crashing into a tree with such force that it snapped like a twig.

"Waoh…I think you might be right Tigramon" Harmony said fearfully. Matt narrowed his eyes in determination.

"C'mon! Let's go!" they ran forward to meet up with their friends, who turned in surprise, their expressions fading to ones of relief.

"You're back!" Sora cried out happily.

"Yep…Gabumon! Digivolve!" Matt yelled to his digimon companion.

"Gabumon digivolve too…Garurumon!"

The large wolf-like digimon digivolved a second time to join the others in their ultimate forms. Tigramon bounded forwards just as she was, snarling, ready to face whomever their enemy was this time. The two digimon and their human friends gasped in shock as a large digimon appeared, floating above them; the spitting image of the universally imagined form of the devil; without the pitchfork.

His red, pointed tail flicked back and forth as he grinned evilly at them, baring his fangs.

"Nasty, isn't he?" Tentomon acknowledged the frightened stares that Harmony, Matt and their digimon were giving the vampire. MetalGreymon had recovered from his fall and he and Weregarurumon looked towards their human partners. Tai and Matt looked at each other and grinned.

"Digivolve to your Mega forms!" they shouted in unison and the two digimon began their transformations.

"Weregarurumon warpdigivolve to…METALGARURUMON!"

"MetalGreymon warpdigivolve to…WARGREYMON!" 

The two megas stood defiantly in front of the digimon who called himself 'Psycheromon'.

Surprise flickered over the enemy's face for the briefest second before warping into a nasty grin.

"HaHA! Fools! PSYCHIC THUNDER!!!"

Suddenly dark clouds formed overhead and the trees began sway as a gale-force wind whipped about them. The digidestined all looked up in fear as lightening slashed through the sky, creating terror in the hearts of those present. Everyone screamed as a burst of lightening flew down from the sky and crashed into WarGreymon and Metalgarurumon, causing them to de-digivolve back to their in-training forms. More lightening then followed and enveloped them all in its blazing heat.

Matt yelled as the electricity chained his body and those of his friends in a painful grip. They were all lifted several feet into the air and the blonde looked around in search of Harmony and his brother, frowning when he could find neither. He whipped his head around as Psycheromon roared.

"There should be nine of you! Where is the ninth digidestined and that young boy with the crest of hope?!"

Angemon scanned the area fervently for his human friend, trying to break free from his confinements. The evil digimon laughed at his efforts.

"Oh how amusing, you really think you will win? How can you-" but he broke off as TK came running into view. Unknown to the rest of the group, Harmony and Tigramon had put up a psychic shield of invisibility, grabbing the first person they saw to protect as well…this happened to be TK. Harmony knew that as long as she was holding the young boy's hand he would remain invisible. But seeing his brother and friends in pain was too much for him and he struggled out of Harmony's grasp, becoming visible to everyone.

"Please! Stop hurting them! Let my friends go now! What do you want?"

Psycheromon was startled by TK's bold plea but recovered instantly, grinning evilly.

"Dear boy…all I want…is all of you dead! So how about I start with you?!" he stretched out a hand and the boy was enveloped in lightening like the others…but this electricity was black and Matt watched in horror as his young brother screamed in pain, the attack slowly killing him.

"TK!!!" the blonde screamed, stuggling against his bonds, his brother's digimon, Angemon, doing the same.

Mimi began crying. "I can't believe this happening! He's too strong! He's going to kill TK!"

The others all remained in shocked silence, unable to do anything to help the youngest member of the group…all except one.

An upset Harmony hugged Tigramon, looking from TK to the others…more specifically Matt. She watched the blonde as he strained against the magical force holding him in place…crying out for his brother.

The dark-haired girl clenched her fists and stood up.

"What are you doing Harmony?!" Tigramon whispered to her fiercely. "Get down before you break the shield!"

"No Tigramon…we are hiding like cowards…and I cannot allow Matt to feel the pain of losing a sibling, the pain which will haunt me forever…no, he needs TK!" she said loudly, breaking free of the invisibility field around her and her cat digimon. The cat sighed and bounded after Harmony. The guitarist ran forward just in time to catch the limp body of TK as Psycheoromon threw him down. She gently placed him on the ground as everyone else watched in surprise. Matt blinked his tears away and the fear he felt for TK doubled as he realised Harmony was now in danger also.

"Run Harmony!" he yelled.

"Yeah! Save yourself!" Tai cried out too. The others all chorused their agreement as their enemy floated in front of them, grinning in amusement. Harmony looked up at the devil-like digimon and then turned to her friends.

"No" she said calmly, causing everyone to fall silent in surprise…including Psycheromon, who had been expecting a good chase.

"I have been running all my life. I've never thought I needed anyone and ever since my brother died I have only looked out for myself. Before Tigramon came along I did not know what it was to have friends." She looked specifically at Matt as she said this. "And all of you too, have managed to befriend me… although I do not know how…But the thing is, I now know that you need me just as much as I need you. I cannot fight by myself, which I would say goes for everyone. If I leave now, he will kill you all…and I know that we cannot fight alone…but together we can win" she said with such passion that hope began to return to them all.

"We are a team; and I cannot leave. Your battles are mine and we need to work together as one…_we must unite to win_"

Suddenly her crest began to glow and she looked down in surprise, as did the others.

"Harmony…your crest!" Izzy said in amazement. The girl turned as her digimon called out her name.

"Hey! I'm digivolving!" Tigramon said excitedly and everyone watched in suspense, waiting to see her champion form.

"Tigramon digivolve to…TELEGURUMON!"

They all stared at Tigramon, newly digivolved into Telegurumon. Originally she had been about the size of a lioness, mainly white with smeared markings that went from purple to blue to green. Her head had had a black cuff around it and she had had a nose ring and sleepers in each pointed ear. She had worn black boot-like coverings on her forelegs with holes cut out for her paws and on her hind-legs had been black and silver bands. Now, she was the size of a horse, the original white colour darkened to black. She had silver boots on all four legs, the front ones covering her paws; large metal claws protruding from them. Her three tails had become five, bushier and fuller. Her coloured markings were still the same but in reverse. The ruff around her neck was now full of stiff metal spikes and she wore a tiara with a large silver stone embedded in her forehead. The cat roared, striking fear even into the hearts of her friends. Harmony grinned happily…finally something was going their way!

"SHATTER WAVE!" Telegurumon closed her eyes in concentration. She opened them and they glowed blue, her body doing the same. Suddenly the ground beneath her quaked, the movement slowly rising into the air, the atmosphere bending like it did on a hot day, making everything shimmer in a mirage…only it wasn't a mirage this time…

Harmony and the others watched in awe as Pyscheromon's attack was diffused and everyone fell to the ground.

"NOOO!" the devil-like digimon roared, repeating his attack on Telegurumon, ending up locking himself in combat with her, their attacks meeting with a blinding flash between them. The cat clenched her fangs, beginning to sweat as she had done with Puppetessamon.

"Quick! Attack…Psycheromon!" she snarled, gasping for air. The other digimon had recovered from their fall, as had the digidestined, and began attacking Psycheromon.

"Flower….CANNON!" yelled Lilymon at the same time as Angemon delivered his 'HAND OF FATE' attack, angry about what had happened to his human friend TK.

The war raged on until the evil digimon began to lose power…he knew he would lose…but being killed by the digidestined was not as bad as what would happen if he returned to the castle to tell Lady Teleoromon he had failed. Psycheromon resigned himself to his fate and dropped his attack, the digimons' attacks all converging on him freely. He did not scream as others had done when dissolving into thousands of data shards, but breathed a sigh of relief. It was over…at least he didn't have to face Lady Teleoromon…

The digidestined watched in awe as he disappeared as many of their other enemies…and friends…had done. Although they had seen it before, it was still an amazing sight to behold.

As the last data pieces disappeared into the distance they all turned to Harmony and ran towards her and Telegurumon, who had digivolved back to Tigramon again.

"You did it Harmony!" Sora cheered as the others chorused their own praises. They all watched as she looked down at her crest then back up.

"No…_we _did it…_together._"

Suddenly she heard soft sobbing and the others followed her gaze to see Matt cradling the still form of his brother TK. They all remembered what had happened and surrounded the blonde as he cried over his brother. Harmony bit her nail, trying to think what to do. Then it came to her…the eerie face of her psychic teacher came back with some haunting words.

__

"You can not bring someone back to life after they have died…but if there is even a trace of life left they can still be saved by uniting your own heart with theirs…so they beat as one, you live and breath as one...you become one. But you have to be strong, for if you fail to reach the other's spirit, and they are not strong enough to hold on, then you will leave your own body and die with them."

She blinked, coming to. She breathed in deeply, scared like hell of what she was going to do…but she knew that if it didn't work, at least she had tried…and she was willing to sacrifice her life on a wing of hope for TK…for Matt. 

She knelt down in front of the blonde and he looked up startled as she reached for TK. He pulled back angrily.

"What are you doing?" he managed to choke out.

"Please…I might be able to save him"

"What do you mean?! He's dead!"

"Not quite!" Harmony said, determination in her eyes. Matt looked at her questioningly as she took his brother from his arms and placed him on the ground. She took the young boy's hands in each of her own and closed her eyes. A blue light surrounded her and then spread to TK. The rebel scrambled forward as she cried out in pain, ready to stop whatever she was going to do. He found himself being held back by Tigramon, who had entwined him in her three tails.

"NO! What are you doing?!" he yelled. The cat digimon hushed him with a calm look. Gazing around at the others she began to explain.

"A psychic revival"

"What?" Izzy asked with keen interest.

"It is possible for one to revive another who appears to be dead…as long as the spirit has not left the body it is possible to awaken the person in question…in this case TK." She glanced over at Harmony who was beginning to sweat, grimacing as she took small shallow breaths. The others looked at her too.

"The only problem is, as the so-called 'dead' person is so weak, the spirit can not awaken the body by itself. To survive it needs a second energy…and for TK this will be Harmony."

It dawned on everyone what was happening. Harmony was sacrificing herself to help Matt's brother!

"To cut it short, the two will form a psychic bond and _literally_ live and breathe as one. In fact, when he awakes you will find that their hearts will be beating in synch."

They all stared in amazement at Harmony and TK, but none more so than Matt…

"So…he'll…they will…be okay, right?" the blonde asked hopefully, his tears having subsided as he realised what Harmony was doing for TK…for him…

Tigramon looked down gravely.

"I won't lie to you. If Harmony can not reach TK, or if TK is not strong enough to return to us, they will both die."

The digidestined and their digimon all stared at the cat in horror and turned to gaze at Harmony, who had now collapsed and was in what appeared to be a deep sleep, or some sort of a coma.

Matt watched the still bodies fearfully, hoping the two would be okay. 

Sora stared at him intently. _Was the rebel falling in love with the guitarist? _She asked herself and looked at Izzy out of the corner of her eye.

Izzy too seemed to have a crush on Harmony, and the tom-boy realised that was what it was. It was a crush, but the computer whiz seemed to think it was more…Matt on the other hand, even though he didn't seem to realise it, was really falling for the girl…

Sora closed her eyes and sighed softly. Although she didn't really want to, she knew she had to set Izzy straight…and fast…before he came between Matt and Harmony, ruining something real.

She shook her head. No…it wasn't just _something_…

It was love.

To be continued….::grins wickedly::…so what do you think of it so far? Well, see ya in the next chapter! J OH! Some notes to make…the song mentioned in the story is really written by Eric Clapton but I used it for creative purposes. Also, the digidestins' newest enemy, Lady Teleoromon resembles Medusa, from the Greek Myths and Legends [hence the snake hair!]

((^_^)) ;-)


	7. Default Chapter Title

****

THE CREST OF UNITY: Part 9

__

"TK!!! TK!!!!"

Harmony called out into the darkness.

"PLEASE ANSWER ME!"

"I'm here Harmony!" the young boy said, coming into view. The guitarist hugged him.

"Do you want to go back?" 

He nodded. "Yeah…I'm ready"

"Do you feel you can do it?"

TK's eyes narrowed in determination in a similar style to Matt.

"Yes…I can do it."

She took his hands and suddenly the darkness began to spin around them:

Spinning…

Connecting…

Intertwining…

Breathe…in….out….breathe as one, beat as one, live as one….

Together, harmonise…

Breathe...

Breathe…

BREATHE…

"They're waking up!" Kari yelled excitedly, waking everyone from his or her fitful sleep. Matt stumbled to his feet and scrambled over to the young girl. The others all followed, watching in anticipation. They were surprised to see that Tigramon was right. As Harmony and TK came to, they noticed their chests rising and falling in unison. Everyone gasped as the two woke up at the same time, sitting up and stretching in a similar style.

"TK!!!" Matt cried out with joy and hugged his young brother.

"I'm okay Matt!" the young boy said cheerfully, hugging him back. The blonde choked back his tears and turned his head to see Harmony staring at the two of them, smiling.

"It worked!" she said happily. Without hesitation, the rebel hugged her, everyone staring at them in surprise.

"Thank-you!" he said, hugging her tightly…doing the same thing she had done to him that night he had returned her guitar to her. She said nothing but squeezed him back in happiness. Both pulled away at the same time, realising that everyone was looking at them. The two blushed and Izzy couldn't help but feel the slightest bit jealous. He stepped forward as if to say something, but was held back by Sora.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Izzy?"

"Uh…sure…" he followed the girl a short distance into the forest. Harmony watched in curiosity as they disappeared from view before diverting her attention back to the rest of the group. They all sat down around the campfire and began to talk a mile a minute. TK and Kari in particular were chattering away very loudly, already tucked away in their imaginary world, common to the innocence of childhood. Matt remained silent as the conversations flew around him, buzzing in his ears. He turned his head towards Harmony and realised she was doing the same thing. As if she could sense him staring at her, she turned her head towards him and smiled. Matt returned the gesture and looked away, but gazed up at her as she said something quite unexpected.

"My sister would have loved this"

"YOU HAVE A SISTER?" they all cried out in unison, the blonde rebel remaining in silent shock. He watched her as she nodded. A terrible feeling of dread washed over him as the familiar sad look replaced her smile…the same one she wore when talking about her brother.

"So…where's your sister?" he asked slowly, trying to ask in a subtle way if her sister was dead like her brother. She looked down at the ground.

"I don't know" Everyone was surprised by her statement and stared at her questioningly. She sighed.

"My sister's name is sort of…connected you could say…with mine; she was called Melody"

She gave a small smirk at the irony before her features returned to the depressed look she wore so often.

"After my brother died…things fell apart…and we had this fight…" she looked away as the tears welled up in her eyes.

"Usually I'm the one to walk off when I'm angry but for the first time she was really mad, and said she was going for a walk…she grabbed her coat and stalked off into the night. But the thing is…she never came back" her voice became a whisper and Matt realised she blamed herself for what happened. Tai stared at her in shock.

"Wow…so you don't know where she is or if she is okay?" he asked in wonder, not wanting to think about how he would react to the same thing happening to Kari. Harmony shook her head.

"No…I never saw her again…It's been over a year…"

They all fell silent, lost in their own thoughts when suddenly Sora appeared between some trees, walking towards them.

"Hey, where have you been Sora?" Tai asked curiously. He had been kind of worried about her…unknown to the girl, he had developed feelings for his good friend…his best friend…;-)

He blinked and shook his head slightly. Sora raised an eyebrow at him before speaking.

"Uh…I needed to talk to Izzy"

"Hey…that's right…where is he anyway?" Joe asked her.

"Ummm…he went for a walk…" she trailed off, remembering the conversation she had had with him. He hadn't reacted too well when she told him that Harmony was the wrong girl for him…he wouldn't accept what she said and refused to believe her…he was so sure that the guitarist was the one for him. But Sora knew otherwise…after all, she didn't have the Crest of Love for nothing! Her gaze fell on Harmony and then Matt…she knew she would have to talk to them both. She decided to confront Matt first about his feelings for the dark-haired girl…she sighed, knowing she couldn't beat around the bush with him; she had to come right out and face him. The blonde gave her a confused look as she beckoned to him.

"Can I speak to you too Matt?" she asked. He shrugged.

"Ah…sure…whatever…" he followed her into the forest. 

Izzy wandered alone in the forest, thinking about what Sora had said.

"_She's not the girl for you, Izzy."_

"How can you be so sure? Huh?"

"Look…I just- I just know okay? The right girl is out there for you Izzy; do you want to be stuck with Harmony when she is right before your eyes?"

The computer whiz stopped in his tracks as he heard a twig snap behind him.

"Who's th-" the sentence wasn't finished as a black shadow swooped towards him, whisking him away from the spot he had been standing in; the only evidence that he had even been there was his laptop, a cracked screen, buzzing…

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!" Matt flatly denied any feelings for Harmony and tried every way he possibly could to get Sora to believe otherwise.

"I don't even like her! She's annoying, I mean I…" the blonde continued raving on, insulting the guitarist as much as he could, trying to get Sora to think he wasn't falling in love with her. He thought he was succeeding as Sora's eyes widened in surprise at him, but then he realised she wasn't looking at him, but at something behind him. He turned to see a teary-eyed Harmony staring back at him. He swore under his breath as he realised that she must have heard everything.

"Harmony, I-" but before he could finish the sentence she ran off into the trees. He felt Sora grab his arm in frustration and anger.

"Now look what you have done! I can't believe you sometimes…you only ever think about yourself! I wouldn't be surprised if she never came back thanks to you! The things you said…rghhhh why would you even say those things when you are in love with her?! You better go find her!" she yelled at him before stalking off. Matt ran a hand through his hair in annoyance at himself and sighed. He just wasn't himself when it came to Harmony…he fell back against a tree as it hit him what Sora had said.

"_Why would you even say those things when you are in love with her?!"_

The blonde's eyes widened in surprise and shock as he realised his feelings for Harmony.

__

Dammit…I'm…in love with her. He muttered to himself. All this time he had been trying to figure out a way to avoid falling in love with the guitarist, without even realising he had already done so…but then again, did he _really _want to avoid falling in love with her?

He continued to question himself and discovered he didn't want to avoid her…dammit, he wanted to kiss her…

The blonde sighed and slapped himself in the forehead. He couldn't believe what he had done…and now, just when he realised how much he loved her, he had managed to turn her thoroughly against him.

__

You IDIOT Matt he cursed himself as he walked back to camp.

Harmony ran blindly through the trees, her tears clouding her vision. She stumbled and collapsed against a tree, sliding to the ground.

"He hates me…" she whispered, causing herself to cry harder.

__

God…what had she ever done to make him hate her so much?

She sobbed softly and as she calmed down she came to a decision. From then on she vowed to stay away from him…she recalled something her brother had told her once long ago when shot down by a guy.

__

No guy that treats you badly is worth it Harmony…you are worth more than that and you don't EVER deserve it. Just avoid those types of guys sis, forget about them, they're not worth it…just walk away…besides, who needs a boyfriend when you have a brother like me?

He had said cheerfully. Harmony smiled through her tears as she recalled the lost memory.

"Andante was right…" she said softly but shook her head, immediately disagreeing with herself.

"But if it's supposed to be so easy to walk away, how come even after all those things Matt said I still…I still…" she stopped as she finally realised what was happening.

"I still…love him?!"

As she pondered the thought, in shock and awe of the new, unknown feeling she was experiencing, she heard a sharp sound to her left.

"E…er…err-er-error.." something buzzed. She cautiously rose to her feet and walked out onto a track in the middle of the forest. She gasped in surprise and fear when she caught sight of what was making the noise.

For there, lying at her feet in front of her, was Izzy's cracked and broken laptop.

As Matt walked into the clearing his friends were camped out in, all the others turned to stare at him and his gaze flickered to Harmony. She must have told the others…they probably all hated him for it now.

"Good! You're back!" Tai said seriously, and Matt realised that they weren't so serious for the reason he thought. He looked at Mimi in shock as she produced Izzy's broken laptop.

"Wha-"

"Harmony found it like this!" Tentomon answered his question, worried about his human companion.

"Yeah- we think something may have happened to him!" Kari said in an agitated tone. Tai nodded.

"We're going to draw straws and pair off to search for Izzy"

Everyone agreed and Matt sat down, waiting for his turn to draw a stick. As he pulled it out of Tai's hand, he looked at it confused, wondering whom he would end up with. He watched as the brown-haired boy paired off with Sora and Kari. Then Joe and Mimi walked off together. But that meant…

He looked at Harmony in horror and she returned the look before narrowing her eyes at him and stalking off with Tigramon. Matt clenched his hands into fists and stood up, following Harmony slowly with Gabumon by his side. TK bounced up beside him with Patomon. Well, at least his bro was with him…but still…

He glanced in Harmony's direction and sighed. It was going to be a long night…

Izzy groaned as he came to on a cold, hard stone floor. It was dark and as his senses returned to him he realised he could hear crying nearby. He struggled to his knees and looked around the dimly lit cell, the only light coming through a crack in a door. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he caught sight of a girl huddled up in a corner crying.

__

So that's what was making the noise…

"Hello?" he said softly. The girl looked up at him in fright, her eyes hidden behind a waterfall of blonde, shoulder-length hair. She cowered back as he crawled over to her. He stared at her in horror as he got a good look at her. She was covered in dirt from head to toe, wearing a short ragged dress, stained with blood. Her hair was a mess, caked with dried mud, and it was falling into her eyes. Izzy reached out and she pulled back.

"Don't worry- I won't hurt you…you're safe" he said softly, wondering what had happened to the disheveled girl. She sniffed.

"You…you're human?" she asked in awe and Izzy nodded, wondering why she seemed so excited. He watched with curiosity as she began to cry again, but this time out of joy.

"Another human! No more evil digimon…" she cried then she sobered up.

"I wish Harmony was here…" she whispered and Izzy thought he had heard her incorrectly.

"Wait…did you say Harmony?"

"Yes…she's my sister" the computer whiz fingered his chin thoughtfully. Hmmm…did the guitarist have a sister she hadn't told them about?

"Do you have…I mean, did you have a brother named Andante?"

The blonde girl looked up fully and he was startled to see the exact same violet eyes as Harmony staring back at him.

"What do you know about my brother?" she asked with suspicion. Izzy was startled. So he was right…

"I think we both have a lot of talking to do…"

Matt watched TK ahead of him, the young boy talking with Harmony about something.

"What is wrong Matt?" Gabumon piped up, startling him out of his reverie.

"Nothing" he sighed, starting the same conversation that had been argued before. But this time Gabumon knew better than to push the point. The digimon walked on with Matt in silence, both lost in their own thoughts.

"I know you like my brother, Harmony!" TK teased the girl lightly.

"Yes- as a friend" the guitarist answered confidently, but soon deflated as Patomon, TK and Tigramon continued to prod her.

"No…you really like him! In fact if I didn't know better I'd say you loved him!" Tigramon added, grinning wildly.

"Stop it!" she hissed to all of them in such a fierce tone that they fell silent immediately.

"I'm sorry" she sighed and they all nodded seriously, not wanting to set her off again. Tigramon glanced at Patomon, who nodded, as if a telepathic conversation had just passed between them.

"C'mon TK…let's go see Matt"

The young boy shrugged. "Okay…"

The large cat digimon watched TK and Patomon return to Matt and Gabumon.

"Something has happened between you and Matt, hasn't it?" Tigramon said, taking Harmony by surprise.

"How did you?…oh wait, don't answer that…" she smiled slightly, but the cat shook her head.

"Yes- I found out telepathically, but I do not know what happened because you have blocked whatever happened in your mind so I cannot get to it!"

The guitarist nodded sadly.

"Is it really that bad?" her digimon said softly. But before Harmony could answer, they heard a loud rumbling overhead. They stopped in their tracks and the others came up to join them. They all looked skywards and were surprised to see how black the sky was…in fact, they had all been so engrossed in their own thoughts they had not noticed how dark it had gotten. The clouds rumbled again and they all jumped as a flash of lightning lit the area.

"A storm…" Matt breathed.

"Yes…we better find shelter" Gabumon said gravely. They all began to walk a little faster but it wasn't long before the sky opened up and the rain started to fall. They ran for it as the rain fell harder and faster.

"There! A cave!" Tigramon called over her shoulder as she raced towards it. The others followed, plunging into darkness. Matt, Harmony and TK heard a shuffle to the side and suddenly the room was aglow with the light from a fire. Gabumon had found some dried twigs and leaves. Using his blue blaster he had lit a fire. Each of the digimon pushed their human friend towards it, telling them to sit down.

"I don't think we are going anywhere tonight!" Tigramon grinned, collapsing down beside Harmony. The guitarist smiled.

"Yeah…I suppose you are right…" she said detachedly, for she wasn't thinking about the rain as she stared across the fire into the blue eyes of the one she had come to love. As he stared back at her she felt a pain growing in her heart. He didn't return her feelings…she had to stop…

She turned away. Nothing hurt Matt as much as Harmony did turning away from him just then. He knew it was his fault. She hated him now, not to mention the fact she liked Izzy…he was positive of that after seeing her rolling around with the computer whiz. He looked down glumly into the fire before standing up and moving a small distance away.

"I'm going to sleep" he said, his voice rough with emotion. Harmony blinked back her tears and moved away too, next to the wall near the cave's opening.

"Me too…" she said softly. TK and the digimon looked from one to the other in curiosity.

"Well…I guess I will too" TK yawned, causing the digimon to shrug and split up to lie next to their human counterparts.

Sora shuffled closer to Tai and slowly leaned up against him. The leader was surprised by her movement but said nothing, enjoying the feeling of the girl he secretly loved sitting so closely to him. He nervously slipped an arm around her waist and held her against him. Kari grinned knowingly and turned away to look out at the rain, Gatomon cuddling up against her. They were sitting in a room in the ruins of a temple they had found. Agumon had lit a fire with his pepper breath and was now lying next to Biyomon, asleep on the ground beside the resulting flames. The short-haired girl sighed and Tai looked at her with curiosity.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh…I'm just wondering where Izzy is…ya know, if he is okay?" she looked up at him and he felt himself falling into her beautiful eyes.

"Umm…ah, yeah…I'm sure he is okay" he managed to stutter. He glanced around, trying to calm himself, but only caused his heart to beat faster as he realised everyone else, including Kari, was asleep.

"I think we need to do something to take our minds off what's been happening" he tried to comfort the girl, looking down at her, suddenly overwhelmed with an irresistible urge to kiss her.

"Like what?" Sora said nervously, looking up into Tai's gorgeous brown eyes, her arms having found their way up around his neck. He took a deep breath and lifted his hand to caress her cheek.

"Like this…" he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. Sora's eyes widened in surprise and then closed, as a feeling of contentment washed over her. She pulled him closer, kissing him harder. Having been encouraged by the girl's move, Tai traced a wet line across her lips, prying them open before slipping his tongue in. She moaned and pulled him down to lie next her. The brown-haired boy shivered, as her own tongue slipped into his mouth, dancing over and around his. He groaned as the kiss deepened and pulled away, gasping for air, Sora doing the same. She cuddled up against him as more lightning coloured the sky and thunder rumbled above them.

"Well, that was an interesting way to take my mind off the current situation" the short-haired girl said breathlessly. Tai grinned.

"Yeah- but not just an interesting way…a really cool way…"

She smiled and lay her head on his chest, closing her eyes. Tai closed his own eyes and laid down completely, arms under his head, cushioning it. Just before he fell asleep he whispered to Sora.

"Sora?"

"Hmmm?" she sighed, on the verge of blissful slumber.

"I love you…" 

She smiled as the darkness closed in over her and Tai, both falling asleep to the sounds of a raging storm, hearing nothing but their own hearts beating together.

"Oh man…could this get any worse?!" Joe said, his head on his arms.

"C'mon Joe…it's not that bad!" Gomamon grinned. Palmon and Mimi looked at the two males, then at each other, rolling their eyes. The pink-loving girl wandered over to the window of the small, dilapidated shack they had taken refuge in from the storm.

"This place smells terrible!" she huffed, wrinkling her nose as she smelt the musty, old air.

"And dirty!" she added, looking at dirt floor covered with a thin layer of hay. In fact it looked more like a stable.

"I like the dirt! Especially between my toes!" Palmon spoke up, jumping onto a pile of hay in the corner, causing straw and dust to float up everywhere- including all over Joe!

"Watch it!" Joe sneezed. "I'm allergic to- to…" he sneezed again. "Haaaay…."

Gomamon rolled his eyes. Just then a large bolt of lightning flashed past the window and thunder rumbled loudly overhead. Mimi screamed.

"I hate storms!" she cried. "And I hate this shack, and all the evil digimon here! I wanna go home!" she cried. More lightning flew down and crackled around the shed.

"WAHH! I'm a good person! Why does bad stuff always happen to me??!!" she bawled.

"Joe! DO something!" Palmon said, trying to comfort Mimi.

"Do what?!!" the boy with glasses retorted, pushing them back up his nose as he watched the tears roll down the girl's face. How he wanted to be able to wipe those tears away…He was surprised when she turned on him.

"And you! Just sitting there! You're a guy! You're supposed to comfort me and protect me from this nightmare! But instead of trying to calm me down you sit there like a stunned digi-rabbit!"

Joe blinked, shaking his head in amazement. Girls could be so weird…man, those mood swings…

More lightening sizzled about them and he watched Mimi begin to shake, on the verge of hysteria. Without realising what he was doing he rose from the bench in the corner and walked over to the girl dressed in pink. He firmly turned her around and Mimi looked up at him in surprise. She was even more surprised when she felt his lips pressed against hers. She melted into his arms as they circled her waist. Joe kissed her with more fire than he knew he had, the two connecting together perfectly with a passion neither had ever known. Palmon and Gomamon looked upon the two humans with amazement and curiosity, eyes wide.

"Wow…" Palmon began.

"You telling me..." Gomamon whispered to the plant digimon. "…I never thought he had it in him!"

The two teens pulled away from each other, panting. Both stared at each other in silence and Joe was sure that Mimi would slap him, but she stood still in shock.

"Ah..um..ah…that- that was" Joe broke the silence. "Ah…that was to calm you down!" he said hurriedly. She snapped out of her trance.

"Uh- Right!" Mimi nodded and they both turned away, her looking out the window again and Joe sitting down on the bench in the corner…except this time both were blushing. 

The two digimon looked at each other and shrugged.

__

It's your fault Harmony…It's all your fault!

No…

****

He'd still be alive

No…please stop…

__

"HE WAS MY BROTHER TOO!…"

Harmony tossed and turned…no…

****

Your fault your fault

__

"HOW DO YOU THINK I FELT?! YOU ALWAYS GOING OFF WITH ANDANTE!" Melody screamed.

NOOO! GOD please stop! Please stop!

__

How do you think…do you think…I felt…I felt?

My brother…my brother…too…too…

Melody grabbed her wrists and started to shake her.

"How do you think I felt Harmony? Harmony? Harmony…."

"Harmony?!"

The guitarist awoke with a jolt, and looked up with fear. She found herself looking into Matt's blue eyes, filled with concern…concern for her…

"Are you alright?!" he whispered fiercely as the others were still asleep. She sat up, panting. The blonde looked her over, thinking she had hurt herself.

"Oh god…" she said, relieved. "It was a just a dream…just a dream" she repeated, relaxing.

"Nightmare, huh?" the blonde said softly, sympathy and sleep making his voice sound silky and clouded. He watched her put her head down so he couldn't see her face, which for him was good because his own face felt like it was on fire. The guitarist's clothes clung to her body from the cold sweat she had broken into, making every curve on her body stand out more fully. Her hair was flowing wildly about her and sticking to her neck and face. God, he wanted to pull her into his arms so badly and make her forget she ever had a bad dream…

__

I'm just the guy to do it he told himself. When he realised what he had been thinking he let go of her wrists, which he had been holding to prevent her from hurting herself. As he did this she looked up.

"Yeah…a nightmare…" she said softly.

"You seem to have a lot of those" he recalled other nights where he had awoken to the sound of her mumbling, tossing and turning in her sleep. She remained silent and lay back down.

"I- I should probably try to get back to sleep…" she said, glancing down. 

Matt looked away. There was no doubt about it now…she hated him for what he said when talking to Sora…the annoying thing was he hadn't meant any of it, in fact it was really ironic for he thought the complete opposite of everything he had said about her. He sighed and walked away.

"'Night Harmony"

Izzy awoke suddenly, feeling someone's eyes upon him. He groggily opened his own, trying to remember where he was. He sat up quickly as he realised the situation he was in, forgetting he had his arm around Melody, the girl he had been thrown into a cell with. The girl who was also Harmony's sister…She groaned, having been woken by his movement. He watched her, thinking about how much he had learnt about Melody and her siblings. The blonde girl, the guitarist, and their brother Andante were all amateur telepaths; the twins more so. He had spent hours listening to the girl tell a tale of intertwining love, friendship, and the hate that destroyed them both. He heard her weave a story of three siblings, orphaned by a truck that had killed their parents, and a woman who took them in and taught them the arts of counterpoint, astrology, telepathy…and the psychic magic. Izzy had shuddered as she revealed to him how evil the woman had turned out to be, using them for her own plans- threatening them with the blackmail that if they disobeyed, she would kill the others…

As the night thickened, the two drifted into a dreamless sleep, only now awaking to a disturbance nearby. 

"What's wrong Izzy?" the girl said sleepily.

"Over there…" he replied, pointing through the darkness at two glowing orbs on the other side of the bars. As their eyes adjusted, the outline of a large cobra-like snake appeared. Melody yawned.

"Oh…that…don't mind him." she said, gesturing at the snake digimon. Izzy looked at her with curiosity. She rolled her eyes. "That's Cobrastramon…for some bizzarre reason he watches me like a hawk…like he's my personal protector. It's not as if I'm going to escape from here anytime soon."

Izzy felt sad for the girl…she had been there for over a year…enough time to lose all hope. It seemed she had succumbed to her fate…she had looked almost ready to die when he had arrived on the scene. But it seemed that his presence had somewhat brightened her mood and revived her spirit; her eyes even seemed to have an uncharacteristic glow to them. He shook his head as he realised he had been staring at her for some minutes, missing half of what she was saying.

"…I don't know why he acts that way…You know, he really doesn't seem like an evil digimon. Sometimes he looks like he's on the verge of letting me go or something…like he wants to help me…probably just my imagination" she said bitterly. Izzy hugged the girl and she sniffed.

"I- I'm sorry…I just-"

"It's alright," Izzy said softly. "I understand…it must be pretty hard." 

Before she could reply they heard an angry hiss from the snake digimon, and watched with amusment and curiosity as it slithered off quickly. Soon they found out why.

Both tensed as the door was opened to the cell, and a woman dressed in black and red satin floated in.

"Your friends…they are coming to save you…" she said with a heavy accent, a forked tongue flicking out of her mouth in thought. The two teens remained silent, waiting for her to continue. She smiled; a frightening sight to behold.

"It's nearly time…" she said evilly. She stretched out a hand and Melody started to float into the air.

"No!" she cried and Izzy grabbed her hands, trying to pull her back down. This angered the witch-like digimon.

"You dare to interfere with Lady Teleoromon? Cobrastramon!"

The snake returned and bowed his head before the woman.

"Yesssss M'lady?" it said in a husky voice.

"Restrain the boy!"

The snake turned on Izzy with a snarl and advanced. The computer whiz jumped to his feet and took a step back. But the digimon flicked out its tail, snapping it like a whip as it crashed into the red-head.

"Hey!" he yelled as it coiled around his body, pulling tight.

"I don-mph! Mmmmph!" he protested when the tip of the snake's tail covered his mouth in a suffocating hold.

Lady Teleoromon laughed a long, screeching laugh. She gestured at Melody with her hand and the blonde floated towards her. Once the girl was close enough, the woman's arm shot out and grabbed at her, her hand closing around the girl's throat in a choking death grip. Melody's mouth was wide open as she gasped for air, and Izzy watched in horror as the witch-like digimon produced a vial of some sort of black substance out of thin air. He strained against his live bonds as the top was flicked off the bottle with a long, sharp nail and moved towards the blonde girl's mouth. Suddenly he felt the snake's grip lessen as he too, watched Lady Teleoromon bring the potion to Melody's lips.

"It won't…kill her, will it?" Cobrastramon asked worriedly. The woman narrowed her eyes at the snake.

"No…it won't…once she has ingested it I shall be able to control her…why should it matter to you anyway, Cobrastramon?" she asked with suspicion. The snaked bowed his head in fear.

"No- it doesn't matter, M'lady, I was just wondering…"

"Well stop wondering and follow me- bring the boy…" she stalked out, a now unconscious Melody floating behind her. Izzy sighed and stopped struggling, realising he wouldn't be able to escape the digimon's strong hold. Cobrastramon slithered after Lady Teleoromon, carrying the computer whiz high in the air behind him. The red-head felt the fear wrap around his heart, clinging to him, refusing to let go as he heard Lady Teleoromon screech loudly, flinging her arms in the air.

"And now the fun, and my revenge, begins…"

::collapses on the ground next to the computer, her fingers stiff and sore:: Okay now THIS took a long time to write…^_^ I wonder if I have enough strength to continue??? Heheh ::grins:: BTW thanks again to Jade and this time a big thank-you to Jehana! I'm glad you reviewed when you did- I was about ready to pack it in! When it comes to me, one review can make all the difference…thanks! Those who know me well know that sometimes I need a good kick-in-the-pants, so to speak, to get me going. =) ::sighs:: Ya know, I was stuck in one of those ruts, trying to figure out how to keep the story moving…I'm sure a lot of you know what that is like! ;-)

Well, if you're lucky, you'll hear from me in the next chapter! ::grins:: ^_^ ;-)

PS: I drew a few more cool pics to go with this story, Jade! ::fans herself:: man are they hot! [not in the way you are thinking though!!!] If ya wanna see 'em, just email me; don't worry! I won't bite…much…8-) ^_^


	8. Default Chapter Title

****

THE CREST OF UNITY: Part 10

Heh…this thing just keeps getting longer and longer, doesn't it? J ::sighs:: I never was capable of writing short stuff…NEways…YES! I actually got off my lazy butt and continued the story; of course, way past due the date I said I would [sorry Jehana and Jade! ::grins::]…Oh! BTW…I have a deep respect for [some people call it an obsession…I can't imagine why…J ] for Xena!!! And there was this one scene between her and Gabrielle, which stuck with me forever, and I just had to put it in this story because I thought it was so good. I had to say this in case anyone recognized it and flamed me but hey! ::defensive:: what happened to poetic license??? But if you don't recognize it, well, 'yay!' for me. BUT if there is anyone out there who knows which part it is, the first one to guess it, I'll write a story for them about whatever they like. [Digimon-related that is!] Whatever subject. Whatever form…you get the idea. ^_^ Well, I'll stop chattering now and let ya read the next part…

[PS: I don't own digimon! Although I reeealllly wish I did…^_~ ]

__

"Hmmm…la la laa…."

Matt stirred in his sleep as a beautiful voice filled his dreams, accompanied by the honeyed sounds of a guitar. The blonde slowly opened his eyes, wondering where the melody was coming from, the notes swirling over and around him.

__

"Thus sings my dearest jewel, In love delay is cruel…"

The rebel struggled to a sitting position and sleepily looked around the cave he, TK and Harmony had taken refuge- Harmony!!!

He woke up completely, realising that she was the one making the music.

She was sitting on a rock next to the entrance of the cave, dawn rays lighting her face like an angel; the weather was warmer compared to the storm they had experienced the previous night. There were droplets of rain falling down around her from outside the cave, sparkling in the morning light, the sound adding atmosphere to the sweet song she was singing…or was it so sweet?

__

"Thus sings my dearest jewel, In love delay is cruel…

Oh come and kiss me quickly,

Or say thou dost not love me…"

Matt felt his heart twist in his chest as he listened to the song…she sounded…sad? The blonde wondered whom she was singing about…

__

"Hmmm….la la la….

Now sings my lovely treasure, In love…

In love a kiss is a harmless pleasure…"

His eyes flew to her lips as she uttered these words softly, the notes floating on the air. He struggled to keep control of himself as visions of kissing her filled his head. Unable to take much more, he went to the side of the cave farthest from Harmony and slipped out into dawning day as quietly as he could. He needed to go for a walk…he needed to think…

__

"Thus sings my dearest jewel, In love delay is cruel…

Oh come and kiss me quickly…

Or say…

That thou…

Dost…not…love…me…"

Harmony brought the song to a close, ending it with a light guitar solo and slowing it down to a finish. As the last note hung in the air, fading into the wind, she sighed wistfully. She hardly slept the night before…having Matt so close physically, yet so far away emotionally, mentally…spiritually…it had started an ache deep inside that wouldn't go away. A growing void that continued spreading every time she thought about it. Her telepathic abilities felt so much stronger with Matt than when with any of the others, like they were connected some how…linked…

Harmony didn't notice that her crest was glowing slightly and turned around, going back into the cave. She put her guitar down quietly next to Tigramon who growled softly; paws in the air, as if chasing something. The dark-haired girl smiled at her digimon and glanced towards the others…well, where the others _should _have been. She realised Matt wasn't in the cave, she hadn't even noticed he'd left.

"Oh no…hope I didn't wake him by playing my music. Don't want him to hate me any more than he already does…" she said under her breath, bitterness, betrayal and hurt cutting through her voice sharply. She sighed and went back outside again, breathing deeply. Shoving her hands in her jean-short pockets she started walking, enjoying sounds, scenery and even the feelings evoked after a storm…everything seemed so fresh and new…like nature had started over again, a new beginning…

__

Wish I could do that she thought sadly, closing her eyes tightly as unwanted memories seeped into her head.

__

She watched in horror as the black body bag was zipped up over his face, covering his jet-black hair, his violet eyes never to open again...She would never again get to see him smile that secret smile of his he reserved only for her. Nor would he ever pick her up and fling her around in circles or tickle her relentlessly…she missed him already. It hurt…it hurt so much…she had never paid much attention to these details but god, they were what really counted, what he represented for her, in her…

The cold wind on the snowy mountains whipped at her face, crystallizing her tears as she stood amongst the ruins of the plane. There were hundreds of others there, rejoicing over found loved ones…or mourning them, like herself…

God, why? Why him? Why the only one she could ever really care about?

"_Harmony?"_

The guitarist clutched tightly at the blanket around her…no, it wasn't true…there was someone else…

She felt Melody put a hand on her shoulder.

"We should go Harmony. It's getting darker…"

Suddenly she felt anger, resentment begin to gnaw at her insides. How could Melody act so calm?!

Tears filled Harmony's eyes and trailed down her cheeks as she shamefully recalled the events that followed.

__

She didn't understand…that was it…she didn't understand. She wasn't a twin, how would she know how it felt?!

"I'll catch up" the guitarist shook off Melody's hand. The blonde girl was startled and stepped back in shock.

"Oh…o..kay…" she trailed off. "I guess…I'll see you back…home…"

The dark-haired girl gave a little snort. Home…that was a laugh. After escaping from the maniacal woman who had taught them telepathy, they had camped out for ages- on the run from child services. If they were put into foster care they would be split up. Although they never talked about it, the three had all known it would happen…then they had stumbled across a farm…in the middle of nowhere…a kind of ranch. A nice old black man had lived there- he had been blind. He had gradually befriended her and her siblings and they ended up living with him and his guide dog. It was a mutual arrangement- he paid for them to go to school and they helped around the farm. He pretty much kept out of their way and apart from the occasional words of wisdom or advice, they were left to their own devices…besides the three of them, he was the closest thing to family they had ever had. But slowly that had begun to dissipate too…with Andante gone, all she was left with was a black philosopher who never spoke anything but riddles, and a sister who buried herself in her art work to escape reality. 

Harmony felt the tears begin to flow more quickly down her face and she sniffed, refusing to sob aloud. Suddenly she heard the strains of a beautiful melody nearby. Wiping the salty tears from her face with the back of her hand she followed the sound until she came to a small clearing. She was curious for the sound seemed vaguely familiar…the guitarist stopped in her tracks, eyes widening as she realised who was creating the soulful music. She peered out from behind a tree to see Matt, sitting at the base of a tree, playing the harmonica. Harmony was surprised for she knew he played but the only time she had ever heard him was briefly before she awoke to meet the digidestined. But this…

She closed her eyes. _This was beautiful._

Like her own music, it was from the heart, an expression of the spirit, and the guitarist felt her sadness melt away as the love of her life played with feeling, telling her more about himself than he ever had.

She crept nearer and watched him closely, his slender fingers clasped tightly, confidently to his instrument, showing how familiar he was with the position. Harmony felt something catch in her throat as her eyes wandered to his lips, pressed against the harmonica. He breathed tenderly into it, creating the melodic notes that she was learning to cherish. God how she wished she was in the place of his harmonica…to feel his lips pressed against hers like that, the precision, confidence- to be held so tenderly by him. The guitarist envied the object for being allowed so near him, she shivered at the thought of being permitted to do the same. She lowered her eyes to the ground and sighed. Unfortunately it was a dream…just a wishful dream… 

Matt looked up, startled, as he heard someone sighing nearby…or at least he thought…

Harmony accidentally fell into a bush behind her…Matt was on his feet within seconds.

"Who's there?" he demanded to know. The guitarist sighed and slowly shuffled into view.

"Hi." she said softly, shyly brushing her hair out of her eyes. The blonde was surprised to see her and voiced his curiosity.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked the girl. She blushed faintly, which made him more curious.

"I was um…looking for you, we…should probably get going…" she rushed breathlessly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Okay…" she turned and began walking back towards the cave, he followed her, left alone with his thoughts. It was then he realised her face had been tear streaked when looking at him…_had she been crying?_

Suddenly the cave came into view and TK and the digimon rushed out to meet them.

"Hey! We wondered where you had gone! Ready to go?" the young boy asked eagerly. Matt and Harmony looked at each other in silence. The guitarist was the first to speak.

"Sure- let's go find Izzy."

Sora watched Kari and the digimon up ahead, chattering away happily. She smiled as she felt Tai's lips press against the nape of her neck, causing her to close her eyes in pleasure. The leader's right hand came up to slip around her waist as they continued to walk and she turned towards him. They both stopped, staring into each other's eyes. The two leaned forward and Sora was totally prepared to feel Tai's lips on hers when…

"Hey!" Kari called out. The couple pulled away from each other blushing and looked towards the young girl, who was pointing at something up ahead. As they followed her gaze they were surprised to see a large castle up ahead. It looked medieval in style, like something out of a fairy tale.

"Kinda like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table…" Tai muttered under his breath. He and Sora ran to catch up with Kari and their digimon, reaching them just as they came to a pair of large iron gates at the beginning of a long, winding driveway. 

"Wow…" Sora breathed. Biyomon nodded in agreement.

"Well, should we go in?" Agumon asked, looking up at Tai. He was about to respond when they heard a familiar voice call out.

"Guys!"

They all turned to see Joe running towards them, pulling Mimi along behind him, the pink-loving girl holding on to her hat.

"Hello!" Gatomon said cheerfully as the two came up to them, panting.

"Glad to see you survived the storm!" Sora said cheerfully, but was surprised when Joe and Mimi just looked at each other and blushed, turning away. Tai didn't seem to notice this but instead pulled Sora into his arms. She smiled up at him, causing Joe and Mimi to stare at them. "Uhh…what are you doing?" the boy with the glasses asked out of curiosity. Mimi squealed and answered the question for him.

"Oh my god! You guys are a couple now! Oh how sweet!!!"

Tai and Sora blushed and Joe shook his head in disbelief. All the digimon seemed quite confused by the events.

"Couple? What's a couple?" Palmon asked.

"Can ya eat it?" Gomamon questioned, causing the humans to laugh.

"Well…can you?" Joe shook his head.

"No Gomamon. A couple is-"

"Hey look!" Kari interrupted, pointing in the opposite direction Mimi and Joe had come from. Six small dots were moving towards them in the distance. Tai took out his telescope and focused in on them. Sora watched his face go from surprised to excited to happy in a matter of seconds.

"What is it, Tai?" Kari asked with curiosity.

"It's Matt and the others! HEY GUYS!!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. The dots were now the recognizable shapes of their friends and the others all watched as they stopped from surprise, then began running towards them. TK was the first one to reach them, followed closely by Tigramon, Patomon and Gabumon. Harmony and Matt slowed down and walked up to them casually. Sora looked from one to the other worriedly, recalling what had happened just before they split up. She sighed as she realised things still hadn't been worked out from the way the two were standing as far away from each other as they could. The short-haired girl wished they would sort things out, they kept giving each other little looks when they thought the other wasn't looking- the same 'looks' she would give Tai and vice-versa.

"Well…I see we all ended up in the same place…" Harmony trailed off, smiling slightly.

"Hmmm…seems to suggest something doesn't it?" Tigramon put in.

"Huh?" Tai was confused.

"Tigramon is a firm believer in destiny- as I am myself…" Harmony looked down at her crest. "As we were destined for this it seems…" she looked up at them and all remained silent, lost in their own thoughts. Their leader was the one to break the silence.

"Well? Are we going in or not?"

The rest of them gazed around at each other and shrugged. Matt, Joe and Tai pushed against the gates, heaving them forward. The doors groaned and the hinges protested loudly as the boys created a gap only just wide enough for one person to fit through at a time. Tai and Joe went in first with their digimon. All the other digimon followed with Sora and Mimi and Harmony brought up the rear, Matt holding the door back. She stopped just before she went through and looked up into his azure eyes, their faces inches apart. Time seemed to stand still as they stared at each other and Matt suddenly felt himself flood with emotions that were not his own; feelings of pain and grief and loneliness- the same feelings he endured when he dreamed of Harmony. He blinked, all of a sudden realising that he was feeling _her _emotions…but how was it possible?! He continued to stare at her as she looked away and walked on through the gate, her body brushing up against his as she squeezed through the small space. The blonde gritted his teeth, willing himself to stay in control of his own emotions. He followed her and let the gate slowly click back into place with a loud screech.

Lady Teleoromon's eyes flew open, gasping in pain from her lotus position on the floor. She squeezed her eyes shut again as the pain subsided and growled with annoyance. She had wanted to find out what she was up against and she had been in for quite a shock. Delving into the digidestins' thoughts and emotions she had discovered just how strong they were. There was a bond between them that she knew would be hard to break- hell, they had come this far just to recover one of their own…

The digimon smiled evilly to herself, her forked tongue flicking out of her mouth in delight. Hmhmhmhmmm…she knew they were unbeatable together, but alone they would fall apart and that would be how she would gain her victory.

Harmony…she scowled as she thought of the girl, the one who had betrayed her; as had her brother and sister…the girl held the crest of unity, and the blonde boy by the name of Matt had the crest of friendship. They were the ones that held the group together; the power of their crests contained most of the force behind the strong bond- they were the ones to aim for…besides, she had a score to settle with _Harmony_… She didn't want to kill them just yet- just like others who had tried to destroy them, she wanted to savour the pleasure…No, a bit of emotional torture would go a long way…

Lady Teleoromon clapped her hands and a watery portal appeared before her, holding the images of Harmony and Matt. Her eyes narrowed, staring at them with hatred. Then her demeanor changed and she smiled, laughing softly at first; the sound growing louder as she grew more hysterical with thoughts of power and control.

The blonde and the guitarist…they were the weak point. They did not know they were the ones who held the group together; they were too insecure of their own thoughts and minds. Neither considered themselves to be worth much and their own uncertainty of each other was the best place to break them apart.

The digimon frowned, in deep thought. But yet, she would have to be careful…there was a saying humans had on earth- it could make you or break you…if she was not careful, she could bring them together instead of push them apart. Friendship- it needed trust, understanding, and Unity? It needed the same things too. The digimon smiled. She had seen what had happened between Matt and Harmony…the blonde fiercely trying to fight his own feelings and hurting the girl in the process…it wouldn't be too hard to send them over the edge… Neither of the teenagers was able to open up and express their feelings, which blocked them from being able to supply the trust and understanding needed. That was their weakness…

Lady Teleoromon continued to stare at the two figures in the wavering portal.

And that was where she would hit them the hardest…

__

Harmony…Harmony…

The guitarist awoke with a start and gazed around at her friends. The fire Joe and Tai had created was now dwindling and almost out. They had all stopped for the night in a forest that intercepted the _very _long path to the medieval castle they had seen. It was so long in fact that they hadn't walked _half_ the distance from the gates to the spooky-looking building!

__

Harmony…

The dark-haired girl blinked. That's right, the reason she woke up…she had heard a voice calling her…but where was it coming from?

__

Harmony…

She struggled to her feet and followed the sound, stopping now and then to listen for it.

__

This way Harmony…

The guitarist realised it was coming from somewhere in the forest. Taking a deep breath she stepped into a gap between the closely grown trees and bravely followed the coaxing voice.

__

Matt…oh Maaattt…

The blonde awoke with a start. A voice…someone was calling him. He looked around at his friends but realised they were all fast asleep…except…

Except Harmony wasn't there. Could it be her?

__

Matt…

Didn't sound like her…

__

This way Matt…

He sighed, figuring he wouldn't get any sleep until he complied with the voice's request. He pulled himself to his feet and looked around.

__

Come on Matt…this way…

He hesitated for a second, looking towards the darkened forest from which the sound had emanated.

__

Matt…

The rebel shook his head and decidedly stepped between the trees, following the incessant call.

Harmony stared around the large stone temple in wonder. The voice had brought her to its door and she had entered out of curiosity. But once she had stepped inside, whatever she had been following had stopped calling her…and it was eerily quiet inside; silence itself was deafening. The guitarist jumped as she heard the door she had entered through open with a loud screech. She whirled around, ready to face an evil opponent, but was only greeted by the surprised face of Matt. She took a step back in surprise as he came inside, the door banging shut behind him. The dark-haired girl gave an inward sigh. At this point in time she would have much preferred Matt to be an evil digimon…

"Uh…hey, why did you call me?" he asked, taking her by surprise.

"Hey yourself- what do you mean, 'call you'?" He seemed equally surprised.

"Weren't you the one who called me here?"

"No"

He started to get extremely annoyed. "Oh yeah? Then what are you doing here?!"

Harmony narrowed her eyes. "None of your business, but for your information I was called here too!" she said, wincing as her voice began to echo off the walls.

"That's it! I'm out of here!" he said, his own voice echoing loudly as he turned to the door and pulled on it. He stopped in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Harmony sneered, disguising her hurt.

"It's locked!"

"WHAT?!" Harmony ran to the door and yanked on it. It wouldn't budge.

"We're stuck in here!" she said with horror. Matt was getting more and more agitated and turned on the guitarist.

"This is all your fault!" he yelled, his voice echoing so badly that Harmony felt a headache beginning to form. "We wouldn't be stuck in this temple if you hadn't brought me out here!"

"I TOLD you! I wasn't the one who called you here!" the forceful echoes of her own voice made her feel dizzy. Matt too was feeling the effects of their yelling bouncing back off the walls. "My world doesn't revolve around you! I came out here for my own reasons!" she grimaced again as the sound hit them even harder. 

"Oh YEAH? LIKE WHAT?!" his voice echoed just as loudly alongside hers.

"TO GET AWAY FROM YOU!!!" her voice hit them like a ton of bricks and the temple began to shake at the force of her words. Both of them nearly screamed at the pain the continuous echoes of their voices caused.

"FINE! AS SOON AS WE GET OUT I'M NOT COMING NEAR YOU AGAIN! SEE WHAT I CARE!" Both of them fell to their knees as the painful echoing grew even louder and they clamped their hands over their ears, trying to stop the ringing. Suddenly a pillar fell near by and the temple shook even harder.

"AND WHAT THE HELL IS CAUSING THAT ECHOING?!" it grew even worse as Matt spoke. Another pillar fell, crashing to the ground with a loud bang, the sound mixing with the echoes of their own voices.

"I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF IT WAS YOU!!!" Harmony screamed at him and the whole temple began to sway. Two pairs of eyes, one of azure and one of violet shot open and the two stared at each other. It was them…it was their fighting…

"We're causing it…your arguing is causing it!" she yelled over the noise, Matt barely hearing her. 

"What do you mean MY arguing?!"

"Well you were the one that started this!" she screamed, falling to the floor as a horrific migraine began thumping at her temples. Matt glared at her, not even noticing the pain she was in.

"What the hell do you mean?!" his voice sounded barely above a whisper as the echoes drowned him out.

"BACK-STABBING ME!" she cried out. "Bitching about me to Sora! Why do you hate me so much?!" Matt watched guiltily as tears flooded her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. He blinked as he realised that her voice hadn't echoed when she said this; in fact, the echoes were beginning to fade…

__

Of course! The blonde's eyes widened as he began to understand what was happening. He jumped to his feet and yelled over the remaining noise.

"Quick- tell me how you feel!" his voice didn't echo either- but hers did.

"Why the hell should I?!" bounced off the walls and the rebel winced at the loud sounds that were returning.

"Because the echoing won't stop otherwise!" their voices continued to sweep back over them.

"What do my feelings have anything to do with this?!" she cried.

"Our voices echo when we fight and attempt to hurt each other- when we lie!" his voice didn't seem to echo as much but the temple still shook with the force of their voices, rocks continuing to crumble around them.

"It won't stop until we tell each other the truth! Please! JUST TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL!" he yelled and Harmony screamed as the echoes increased ten fold.

"I HURT INSIDE!!!"

It stopped. Silence. The guitarist took a shuddering breath and gasped for air, her own breathing and Matt's the only sounds in the now still temple. She struggled to her feet and the two turned to stare at each other wide-eyed. The blonde slowly climbed over a fallen pillar, the settling dust tickling his nose. He cautiously moved towards Harmony, who stared at him with a dazed expression.

"I- hurt…inside…" she whispered, now crying silently, the tears trailing down her smooth skin. She looked down and was startled when she felt Matt take a hold of her arms. She began to pull away.

"Just let me go!" her voice began to echo again, but the rebel kept a firm grip on her.

"Harmony- just wait a sec."

"No!" their voices mingled and echoed loudly against the walls.

"Harmony- please- I'M SORRY!" he cried in despair and suddenly the echoes were gone. She stopped struggling but the blonde could feel her shaking under his firm grip.

"I didn't mean it-I-" Matt trailed off. He let go of her left arm and brought his right hand up to cup her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered, searching her eyes. She finally stopped crying but her eyes still glistened with tears, visible traces of them still lining her face, giving her a kind of angelic look in the moonlit temple. Her breathing had become more even but she still took the occasional shuddering breath, making Matt mentally beat himself up for causing her so much grief. Suddenly he was overwhelmed with an uncontrollable urge to kiss her…

She lowered her eyes and pulled away slightly.

"I think- we should probably try and get out of here" she whispered. She was surprised to feel Matt's grip tighten on her arms. The guitarist looked up into his eyes and felt she was drowning in an azure coloured ocean. She felt she was in a dream as they slowly leaned towards each other, Matt's lips coming tantalizingly close to hers… 

Suddenly both their digivices went off, shrilling loudly in the silence of the temple. Startled, they jumped apart and looked at the electronic pieces. Matt frowned as it dawned on him why the digivices had interrupted the special moment. 

"C'mon- the others are in trouble- we gotta help them!"

They turned towards the locked door and were startled to find it broken on the floor; a large pillar had crashed into it, crushing the wooden object beneath its weight. They were free to leave.

Matt grabbed Harmony's hand.

"Let's go."

Dun dun dun….LOL I bet y'all really annoyed with me, huh? Thought they would kiss, right? ::sheepish:: I'm sorry….just be patient…the next part might yield some results! ::winks:: ummm…NEway….the song in this story 'Thus Sings My Dearest Jewel' is not mine…it's a song I once sang in the _choir_…::shudders:: heh. ^_^ Well…that's about it…see ya in the next part!

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	9. Default Chapter Title

****

THE CREST OF UNITY: Part 11

And it continues! Bwahahahaha….ehhhh…I'm sorry for writing such a long story. BTW this particular chapter ain't too good for kiddies…there's some stuff on suicide so if you don't like reading detailed descriptions of self-inflicted blood shed then I advise you to turn back NOW! You have been warned, so I shall choose to ignore silly flames about how I shouldn't write such dark stuff. K? Well…on we go ^_^

****

Lady Teleoromon lashed out at WarGreymon with every bit of pyschic power she possessed. Tai's digimon fell like a discarded rag doll alongside the other weak and exhausted digimon belonging to the digidestined. Garudamon was badly winded, Angemon and Angewomon were struggling to their feet but with one more 'ENERGY DRAIN' blast from the psychic witch brought them to their knees. Zudomon was wincing in pain, lying beside an unconscious Lillymon. Mimi was bawling her eyes out and even Sora, the known tom-boy, began crying. Kari and TK had fallen to their knees, hugging each other out of fear and silent shock, and Joe was desperately attempting to rouse Zudomon. Tai bit his lip, clenching and unclenching fists, debating what to do. He could have killed Matt and Harmony for disappearing at such a time. Izzy too- even though it wasn't his fault for being kidnapped…Both Tigramon and Gabumon, as well as Tentomon, couldn't digivolve but they still had tried their best in the forms they were in, but Lady Teleoromon had managed to defeat his own digimon, Wargreymon, who was a Mega! What chance had the three rookies without digivolving? 

Tai fell to his knees and slammed his fists into the dirt. _DAMMIT_ !

The witchy digimon floated confidently above them.

"Your digimon are pathetic! Completely useless against me! You all have neither the knowledge nor experience to tangle with a psychic! Prepare to die!" she raised her hands in the air.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" a familiar voice called out. The digidestined turned to see Matt running towards them, closely followed by Harmony. Sora and Mimi stopped crying, joy overcoming their despair. Joe grinned with relief and TK and Kari ran to greet the two. Tai jumped in the air.

"YEEESSS!" he turned towards the evil digimon. "It's not over yet Teleoromon!" he stepped back as the digimon hissed at him.

"It's LADY Teleoromon to you, pest!" she clapped her hands and a ball of blazing black light appeared as she spread her arms apart. Her eyes glowed black and she threw it towards Tai.

"NOO!!" screamed Sora, running towards them but knowing she was too far away to reach him on time. Wargreymon struggled to his feet only to collapse again. The digidestined leader raised his hands up over his face, preparing to feel burning heat slowly eat away at his skin. But instead all he felt was a slight warmth radiating towards his body. Tai opened his eyes and lowered his hands as he realised he had heard the loud woosh of the attack hitting something...but not him. His jaw dropped in surprise and he took a hasty step back for there, hovering in front of him, was the burning ball of black light. It was meeting with a glowing blue barrier, pushing against it relentlessly, but the blue light-wall stood strong.

"Tai! Move!" he turned, dazed, towards the person who had yelled at him. It was Matt. Following the blonde's wild gestures his eyes fell upon the guitarist, wincing in pain, feet firmly planted on the ground. Her hands were stretched out in front of her towards him and she was glowing blue. _The same colour as the barrier!!!_

The leader was shocked as it dawned on him that the protective wall was her doing.

"Tai!" he snapped to attention. This time it was Harmony who spoke.

"Please…MOVE! I- I can't…" she winced. "Keep this up- forever!" as she gasped for air, the blue wall began to blink wildly and Lady Teleoromon's attack pushed forward slowly. Tai realised what was happening and ran to his left, jumping out of the way as the barrier disintegrated and the pyschic attack hit the ground with a rumbling crash, causing the ground to shake violently. 

"Grrhhh….YOU!" Lady Teleoromon turned on Harmony who was on all fours, panting heavily. The dark-haired girl narrowed her eyes hatefully. Matt came over and helped her up, giving the witch the same look as Harmony was. The evil digimon stared back with just as much hatred, if not more, combined with the evil in her body.

"YOU!" she shrieked, staring at them. "YOU TWO! You are supposed to be crushed underneath the rubble of that temple!"

Both of them looked at her with surprise, eyes widening. Harmony stepped forward, shaking off Matt's arm.

"You were the one who called us there! Weren't you?!" she yelled. The psychic stared back at her, grinning evilly.

"Yes…I was. I was hoping the two of you would kill each other through your own stupidity but it seems that plan has failed…"

The other digidestined all turned to look at the blonde and the guitarist who were staring up at the digimon defiantly.

"It sure as hell did fail!" Matt said angrily. Lady Teleoromon laughed.

"Well- it doesn't really matter at this time. I was just having a little fun with your friends…but now the real fun begins…_Harmony_!

"huh?" the guitarist felt confused.

"Hmmm…don't you recognise me Harmony?" she laughed viciously.

"What?!" things were confusing her by the minute. She took a few steps forward, the others standing a few meters behind her. The dark-haired girl watched with awe and fear as the digimon shape-shifted before her eyes. The black and red flowing satin transformed to a vaguely familiar outfit…much like something a gypsy would wear, but completely black. Harmony shook her head as she saw the skirt flash in her mind.

__

The quick, decisive click of heels on the floor…black skirts swishing down the corridor.

"No…Not again!" Harmony cried and huddled into a corner. The telepathic pain was more than she could bear.

"Yes Harmony…" a voice said in the darkness…

"Yes Harmony…"

The guitarist's eyes flew open and she stumbled backwards in fear. "No…it can't be…"

she watched the digimon finish her transformation and the rest of the digidestined murmured their surprise at Lady Teloromon and wonder at Harmony's reaction.

"Remember me now?" said a very human-like form of Lady Teleoromon. The dark-haired girl began to shake, tears running down her cheeks. Sora came forward and put her hand on the girl's shoulder.

"What's wrong Harmony? Do you know her?"

The guitarist sniffed and nodded, causing the rest of the digidestined to gasp in surprise.

"Who is she?" Joe asked out of curiosity, voicing the question everyone wanted to ask.

She turned slightly towards them so they could see her profile, eyes lowered, she cried softly.

"Madame Tarrin-the psychic teacher of myself and my siblings" the others all remained in shocked silence as the force of her words hit them.

"The one who raised us, the one who taught us, and the one who caused us pain, anguish and suffering" she spat out, the hateful words aimed at the digimon.

"The one who tried to teach us to be evil, raising us to know only hate and spite. But when we wouldn't comply with her, she turned on us."

She stood straight up and glared at Lady Teleoromon.

"No Harmony…you turned on me…" the digimon said hatefully. "So to punish you, I killed your brother"

The girl's eyes widened and she stepped back in surprise. The psychic woman grinned evilly again.

"That's right- I psychically destroyed the plane's operating system which caused it to crash…killing your brother."

Harmony remained in silent shock along with the rest of the digidestined as Lady Teleoromon continued.

"But of course, I didn't feel it was enough…so…I took your sister."

"WHAT?!" Harmony screamed. "Where is she you bitch?!" 

"Right here…" a portal formed beside the evil digimon and out stepped her sister, Melody. The digidestined looked at the newcomer with surprise. So this was Harmony's sister???

"Hello Harmony" the girl sneered as the guitarist stepped forward in joy. The dark-haired girl stopped. Something was wrong.

"Melody?" she questioned, confused.

"Yes- it is me." The blonde girl said, wandering over to stand next to Lady Teleoromon, wearing the same evil smile. The digimon put her arm around the girl.

"What are you doing Melody?! She's our enemy! She treated us like dirt, sis! AND she killed our brother!"

"No she didn't- you did." The girl said coldly, causing Harmony to stagger backwards. She took a shuddering breath as fear and guilt surfaced…no…the others couldn't know…

"It was your fault Harmony" the blonde artist tripped forward towards her shaking sister.

"And you know it." She narrowed her eyes at Harmony who fell to her knees.

"You know you could have stopped him going on the plane…but you didn't."

"No…stop…" the guitarist whispered, crying again, hugging her knees, rocking back and forth. The digidestined watched, frozen where they were in shock and fear. Matt felt his insides warring as he felt Harmony's emotions hitting him in waves. Ever since he met her, something had begun to grow between them…a sort of bond. Ever since the beginning he could feel her emotions…even in his dreams they were there- but now he could feel them consciously- and it was frightening.

"You foresaw something happening- but you still didn't stop him…" 

Harmony sobbed out loud as Melody's harsh words bit into her.

Matt felt something tug at his green top. It was Kari.

"Matt…look…" she whispered, pointing at Lady Teleoromon. The blonde followed her gaze and was surprised to see Metalgarurumon and Telegurumon sneaking up together behind the evil digimon. Matt frowned as he looked at their enemy. Something…was up…It appeared that she was concentrating on something so hard that she was using up all of her power…like she was controlling something…

He looked from her, to Melody, and back again. He suddenly realised what was wrong…

He was snapped back into reality as Melody's voice flooded his head.

"And what do you mean Lady Teleoromon treated us like dirt?! After Andante died, you treated me just as badly!!!" she snarled and Harmony screamed.

Suddenly Lady Teleoromon screeched as Harmony and Matt's digimon pounced on her.

"SHATTER WAVE!" Telegurumon growled and Melody suddenly teetered, losing her balance. She stumbled, falling to the ground groaning.

"NOO!" the psychic digimon screeched as Metalgarurumon blasted her into an ice-sculpture.

"ALRIIIGHT!" yelled Tai, giving Matt a high five. But he had spoken too soon. Much in the same style of Myotismon, Lady Teleoromon shattered the ice. Transforming back to her digimon form she ran forward, grabbing up Melody. The blonde seemed startled.

"What..What happened?…Harmony?" she questioned, surprised and overjoyed to see her sister as the evil digimon took hold of her.

"Hey! LET GOOOO!" suddenly both disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. All the fallen digimon glowed as energy returned to them, and they de-digivolved back to in-training. Joe walked towards Harmony and put a hand on her shoulder.

"NO!" she screamed, causing the spectacled boy to jump back. The dark-haired girl scrambled to her feet and began running, running away from them all.

"Some-one stop her!!!" Tai yelled. Matt frowned in determination.

"I'll get her!" he called over his shoulder, running after the girl.

"No…Harmony…" a weak voice called out. The digidestined crowded around Tsunomon and Tigramon, the one who had called out. The digidestined leader frowned.

"What's wrong Tai?" Sora asked, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind and resting her head on his shoulder. He sighed.

"I'm wondering what's up with Harmony. I hope Matt finds her- I wonder why she ran away?"

"We all need to be alone sometimes" Gatomon purred. "I should know.."

"Yeeaaahh…but what was all that stuff with her sister about?"

The others all agreed.

"I wonder what Melody meant by Harmony treating her badly…Harmony seems way too nice to be nasty" Joe spoke up. Tigramon pulled herself to her feet/ paws and sat back on her haunches. Sighing, she began to speak.

"I knew this would come up sooner or later…" the cat growled softly. The digidestined and their digimon were confused by Tigramon's statement.

"What do you mean, this would come up sooner or later?" Tentomon asked with annoyance, feeling that ever since Harmony and Tigramon had appeared they had been quite mysterious. The cat looked up at everyone, beckoning them to take a seat. Tai re-lit the campfire that had gone out during the fight. Harmony's digimon waited for him to sit down too. As he did so she cleared her throat.

"I told Harmony that she should tell you all her past, but she refused. She is afraid, you see…of your reactions…she doesn't trust people too well at first- she has been hurt badly in the past. Particularly by Madame Tarrin- the one whom you all know as Lady Teleoromon."

Tigramon paused, checking that they were all listening. She sighed again. "She said that she'd work with you all on a 'need to know' basis…and right now, I think you need to know…what happened." The digidestined remained in awed silence until Patomon spoke up.

"So you're gonna tell us what did happen?" he asked, voicing the question going through all their minds. She nodded.

"Well, yes and no…I'm not going to tell you…I'm going to show you…" she watched their confusion grow and smiled slightly.

"Please; close your eyes and I'll begin…"

Harmony ran and ran until she collapsed to the ground with exhaustion. Painful sobs wracked through her body as she thought about her sister, her brother, her past and her own guilt…

"Harmony!" she turned her head and saw Matt running towards her. Panicking, she clumsily rose to her feet and attempted to run, her tears interfering by clouding her vision. She got as far as the edge of the forest before she felt Matt roughly grab hold of her arms and turn her, forcing her to face him.

"No!" she cried and fell back against a tree, but the rebel held onto her tightly and used the tree to his own advantage by pinning her against it.

"Harmony- stop it! What the hell is wrong?! You don't just run off like that- we're your _friends_" he growled between clenched teeth, his worry coming out in the familiar form of anger. He bit his lip, instantly regretting acting so brashly. He expected her to cry but was taken by surprise as Harmony stared up at him with those pain-filled violet eyes, reflecting the grief and loneliness he related to her in his dreams. But a new emotion was present, and having felt it so many times himself he instantly recognised it. Guilt.

The blonde didn't have time to analyse it as with an amazing amount of strength, she wrenched free of his grip and pushed him back. He stumbled slightly and had barely enough time to regain his balance as she grabbed a hold of him by his collar.

"You want to know what's wrong?! Fine then! But you'll regret it!" she said dangerously.

"It can't be that bad!" Matt retorted, shocked by Harmony's reaction. Suddenly her eyes began to well with tears again.

"Oh yes it can be…" the blonde remained silent as she glared at him, clutching his green top. She took a step forward and the rebel sub-consciously took one back. He swallowed.

"Well…ya gonna tell me or what?"

"Oh I'll do better than that…I'll show you…" she whispered, eyes narrowing.

"How?" he asked with confusion.

"Like this…" he barely had time to react as she kissed him, her soft lips pressing against his. Matt thought he would enjoy being kissed by her, but then again, it wasn't really a kiss…instead he felt himself falling into blackness- his mind tumbling and twisting distorted images together. As the first picture formed he felt her mind meld with his and suddenly her life became his…a movie playing before his eyes…

**A/N: Tigramon and Harmony are projecting these same images to Matt and the other digidestined at the same time. The next sequence is back in the past involving Harmony and Melody and a bit of Andante…Also, normal writing is what is happening, _if it is in Italics, that is what the other digidestined are thinking, _got that? ::grins::**

~~one~~

"Don't go Andante." Harmony stepped forward, fear clouding her voice, interfering with her judgement as she recalled her premonitions. Her brother smiled disarmingly.

"C'mon sis, it'll be alright. It's just a short plane trip that the band is going on…and you know I have to be there cause I'm their drummer! I'll be back soon…" her twin kissed her on the forehead and pulled her into a bear hug.

"No- you shouldn't go Andante…" the guitarist continued. The dark-haired boy sighed and put his suitcase down in the middle of the airport, gesturing at his fellow band-members to go on. He pulled a silver coin out of his pocket.

"Tell you what Harmony…let's make this fair. If I win this coin toss, I go on the trip. If you do, I stay."

The guitarist rolled her eyes at her brother who had a way of making what she considered to be a life or death situation, into a silly game…but so sincere that she knew if she did win, that he would stay…that was her brother. She sighed. He could be so silly…but in this charming sort of way that always had the girls chasing after him…one of those guys with a 'devil-may-care' attitude. 

Harmony looked into the eyes of the mirror-figure male standing before her then down at his outstretched palm in which lay the silver compromise.

"Alright" she caved in. Her brother was such a clown. He grinned mischievously at her before flicking the coin into the air. Harmony crossed her fingers as she watched it tumble.

__

The digidestined held their breath in silent anticipation as they watched the silver object fall back into Andante's hand in slow motion. The boy's hand closing over it, slapping it onto the surface of his other hand, still hiding it.

Andante looked up at his sister, grinning.

"Heads or Tails?"

Harmony bit her lip anxiously, praying she would pick the right option.

"Heads"

Her twin took his hand away to reveal the coin's decision, sealing their future fates. 

"Tails" 

She closed her eyes in despair, but he grinned.

"See ya in two weeks, Harmony!"

~~two~~

A single white rose fell into the open grave, Melody's tears wetting both the flower and the wooden coffin. An old black man came up to her side, his guide dog sitting patiently at his feet.

"Where is Harmony?"

"I- I don't…know…" Melody bit her lip. She didn't know where Harmony was at all anymore…hell, she didn't even _know _Harmony…she had changed since…

She couldn't bring herself to even think about what had happened. The blonde girl sighed. Actually they had both changed…

She watched the black man as he produced a thorn-less red rose and twirled it between his fingers before dropping it on top of the coffin that was slowly being lowered into the ground. The sounds of Andante's band playing a sad song in the background tore at her heart as the man began to speak.

"Family…that dear octopus…from whose tentacles we never quite escape nor, in our inmost hearts… ever quite wish to…"

Melody remained silent as he continued.

"You know, the human spirit…is stronger than anything that happens to it" he rested a hand gently on her shoulder before tugging at his dog and moving off. The blonde girl watched him leave with curiosity before turning back to the slowly descending coffin.

Harmony should be here…

Melody turned away, unable to watch anymore, and was about to leave when she was suddenly seized by an idea. She took another white rose and threw it in beside her own.

"For Harmony…" she whispered, hoping that perhaps somewhere Andante could hear her.

Harmony watched from a distance behind a large, old, gnarled tree. As Melody threw the rose in she felt the tears well up in her eyes, hot against her cool skin. The freezing wind dried them instantly and she collapsed down behind the tree, ignoring the biting cold air sneaking under her clothes, through her open coat. She didn't care anymore. She bit her lip hard until she could taste the blood, the physical pain relieving some of the mental anguish.

The guitarist didn't know how much longer she could last.

__

Matt felt his head throbbing- he didn't know how much longer HE could last…he wasn't so sure he wanted to know anymore…

Tai reached for Sora's hand as he heard her crying somewhere in the distance. He had never imagined losing someone would be as painful as this…

~~three~~

****

Love,

Harmony

Harmony signed the note and left it on the kitchen table for Melody to find. She hoped she could forgive her…

__

Oh god…

"Don't do it Harmony!!!" Matt cried out into the darkness of his mind, forgetting his lips were still pressed firmly against Harmony's. He forgot where he was…he was no longer in the present- he was in the past…a bystander unable to do anything in the movie playing before his eyes…

~~four~~

Melody's eyes widened as she read the note. She crumpled it in her hand and ran from the kitchen…towards Harmony's room…She hoped she wasn't too late…

~~five~~

The guitarist studied the knife and brought it close to her left wrist, hesitating for a moment. She had never liked the sight of blood...she usually felt sick at the sight, but her brother had always been fine with it…

Her brother…

She gripped the knife tightly and frowned in concentration. She had seen it done on TV, but she wasn't particularly sure how to do it herself.

She pressed the knife against her flesh, crying out in pain.

__

The digidestined all watched in horror and Tigramon was beginning to regret letting TK and Kari see it…but they were part of it now…

"No…Harmony…" Mimi cried.

"Don't do it!" Sora added, alongside the cries of her fellow digidestined.

Matt choked, staring in disbelief at Harmony's past self. 

So this is what she was hiding from us…

She dug it in deeper and watched in satisfaction as blood began to ooze from the wound. She did the same thing to the other wrist and watched the red liquid rise and spill over her arms. Harmony winced as the pain increased and remembered something about warm water making the blood flow quicker.

She painfully turned on the tap in the small basin in her room and filled it with hot water. She placed her arms in it and gasped as she felt the blood gush. The guitarist watched in fascinated horror as the water turned red. She began to gasp for air, feeling light-headed. Falling to her knees, the world began to spin and go dark.

Suddenly the door crashed open, and Harmony watched, dazed, as an angry and scared Melody stormed towards her.

"You bitch!" she screamed as the world turned black for the guitarist.

"NO!" the blonde cried.

~~six~~

Harmony sat staring out the hospital window, thick bandages covering her arms. Why couldn't Melody have just left her alone? She had to make her suffer, didn't she? Keep her alive so she wasn't the only one…

The guitarist sighed; knowing it wasn't true at all…

She cares…

Harmony was startled out of her reverie as her sister entered the room. She ignored Melody and continued to stare out the window.

"Why?" the blonde girl asked softly.

"I can't…I can't live without Andante…" the guitarist's voice cracked. 

"Yes you can…I can, Harmony…it takes time…" Melody whispered. The dark-haired girl snorted.

"Of course you can- he wasn't your twin, was he?"

"Harmony!" the blonde girl was taken aback and felt her anger boil.

"He was my brother too! Although sometimes you both acted otherwise…" she said bitterly. The guitarist was startled and turned towards her.

"What?" her sister narrowed her eyes.

"You and Andante always going off together! How do you think I felt Harmony?! Being left behind…like I didn't exist…stuff the twin business! You ignored me! You always have!" she cried with anger. Harmony matched her tone nastily.

"What do you mean WE ignored YOU?! We always tried to get you to do stuff with us- but you were continually working on some art work or other of yours…you are just antisocial! Don't blame it on us…on me…" Harmony sadly realised her mistake. The two fell silent for a few moments before the guitarist continued.

"You never needed us, you were always so independent…more interested in your art work…but I needed Andante- I still- need Andante…" Harmony closed her eyes and turned back to the window.

"Well guess what Miss Drama Queen!" Melody threw at her. "I NEED YOU!" she cried.

Harmony's eyes flashed open in shock as the blonde girl continued.

"The only reason I never did stuff with you two is because when I did, you were always sharing some secret joke or private conversation…I always felt like I was intruding. Its not just twins that need each other- all siblings need each other. But I guess you were too wrapped up in your own world to realise that Harmony. I can't believe you would go kill yourself and leave me here alone you bitch! You're just SELFISH! You may not need me but I need you! Go to hell Harmony!" Melody yelled passionately, not even attempting to disguise the anger, hurt and betrayal in her voice. The blonde artist grabbed her coat and stalked out.

"I'm going for a walk!" she slammed the door.

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Tigramon opened her eyes as did the other digidestined- all of them blinking tiredly. They remained in silent shock having finally discovered Harmony's past. The cat digimon began to speak.

"And that was the last time…"

"…I ever saw Melody…" Harmony said as she pulled away from Matt, tears streaming down her face. She turned her back on him and wrapped her arms around her shaking body. 

The blonde had no idea what to do, he was uncomfortable with expressing any emotion other than anger- but her couldn't leave Harmony like that…he- he...loved her…

Matt gently took the guitarist by the shoulders and attempted to turn her around. She struggled a bit but he firmly moved her until she faced him. A waterfall of black hair hid her face, but he could hear her crying softly.

He reached out and took one of her wrists in a gloved hand. The rebel slowly pulled her glove back until he found what he was looking for. He removed one of his own gloves and lightly traced the thin scars dancing over her wrist.

"I guess you think I'm some kinda suicidal freak now, huh?" she whispered sadly.

"No…"

Harmony was taken by surprise and looked up at him, searching his eyes for some telltale sign of lying. There was none. She closed her eyes and sighed as his hand came up to caress the side of her face, brushing away her tears.

"I guess I…understand…" Matt realised softly at the same time he said it. He pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her in a comforting hug. She resisted at first, but relaxed, her arms circling her neck.

"Y'know, I'm glad Melody stopped you…from killing yourself…" Harmony remained silent, eyes closed as she listened to his soothing voice.

"Cause I never would have met you…and I…" he hesitated, not sure he was able to continue. He wasn't that good with words, he was better with…actions…

He pushed her away ever so slightly, both of them staring into each other's eyes. Harmony felt her heart race as she delved into his emotions…surfacing his feelings of passion, lust…love…

__

But was she ready?

"Maybe- we- we should head…back…" she trailed off, losing herself once again in his azure-coloured eyes_._ She felt herself begin to breathe more shallow as he brought his hand up around the back of her neck and gently guide her forward, his lips meeting hers in a soft kiss. He kissed her gently, making sure she wanted the same thing. Matt was answered by her arms reaching up to circle his neck, pulling him closer. That was all the encouragement he needed. Emotions that he had kept locked in side for so long broke free and he pushed her up against a tree, kissing her passionately. Harmony moaned as his tongue traced a line along her lips before slipping into her mouth. She retaliated in kind and pressed her body fully against his, pulling him even closer as he pushed her against the tree. The blonde groaned and thrust his tongue further into her mouth, deepening the kiss. He ran his hands down her body, slipping them around her bare waist as the aching heat in him rose. There was something he wanted…

Harmony clung to him tightly, afraid he would leave any second and she would wake up to find it had all been a dream. _God it felt so good…_

She felt her legs growing weak as he kissed her with more fire than she knew he had_. _The guitarist fell to her knees, pulling him with her. She quickly removed her gloves, tossing them down beside her, before slipping her hands up under his green top.

Matt gasped through the kiss as he felt her hands skim across his bare skin, causing him to press his full body weight against her, getting the girl to slowly lean back down_. _As he pressed against her, passionate heat washing over them both, she felt something that startled her to no end. She broke the kiss, leaving both of them breathless, panting for air. The guitarist put her hands on his shoulders, keeping him at bay- even though she didn't really want to.

"We- we have to stop, Matt…I'm afraid if we don't stop now, we won't be able to."

The blonde ran a hand through his hair. He didn't really want to stop and he could tell she didn't want to either. But as his sensibilities slowly came back to him, catching up with his hormones, he realised that neither of them was ready. He smiled for what seemed like the first time in ages to him as she flung herself into his arms. He leaned back against the tree and put his arms around her, holding her protectively. The blonde finally understood- he needed her…and she needed him. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of her warmth connecting with his.

"I think we should go find them…" Joe spoke up, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

"No…don't!" Tigramon said quickly, eyes flicking open, grinning.

"Why not?" Tai asked, puzzled.

"They're umm…well, lets just they will be back soon…" the cat digimon purred, smiling. Tai still was quite confused but Sora caught on quickly, as did Mimi.

"Ohhh…uh, yeah, let's just go to sleep…" Sora said quickly. "They'll be back soon."

"Are you sure?" Kari asked, worried. Tai caved in, more than happy to go to sleep again…damn he was tired…

"Yeah Kari, they'll be okay. 'Night guys…"

"'Night!" they all chorused.

"I'll stay up on watch" Sora offered. Tai grinned and whispered in her ear as he passed.

"Thanx gorgeous!" She smiled and let out a small gasp of surprise as he stopped and kissed her on the neck, sucking on the skin.

"Mmmm…" she sighed and her eyes flicked open, trying to stay focused. She giggled, pushing him away.

"Go to sleep Tai!" she laughed as he rolled his eyes and gave her a hurt puppy look. Finally he grinned.

"'Night Sora!"

"Goodnight!"

Joe sighed, watching them out of the corner of his eye, wishing he had the crest of courage like Tai did so he could go talk to Mimi…about what had happened during the lightening storm. He turned to look at her and was surprised to find her staring at him. Realising she had been caught, she blushed and turned away. The blue-haired boy felt a warm feeling grow inside as he thought about the pink-crazy girl.

"uhh…Mimi?" he asked, feeling the heat rise in his face as she turned towards him.

"Yeah?"

"Um..I just wanted to say…" he hesitated.

"What?" she asked eagerly.

"I just wanted to say…Goodnight…"

"Ohh…" Was she disappointed? _Nah…you're dreaming Joe!_

"Well, Goodnight Joe." she returned and the spectacled boy lay down, sighing. Well, it was a start…

Matt's eyes flicked open, realising he had dozed off. He smiled as he looked down at the dark-haired girl lying in his arms.

"Harmony?"

The girl murmured something in her sleep and snuggled up against him, clutching at his green top for security in her dreams.

"C'mon Harmony- we gotta get back to camp…"

No response.

The rebel sighed, realising she wasn't going to wake up any time soon. He smiled to himself as an idea came to him. Matt slid out of Harmony's grasp and stood up, bending down to pick her up. She sighed as he bundled her into his arms and rested her head against his shoulder.

He gritted his teeth. She wasn't heavy, but she wasn't all that light either…

The blonde couldn't help but smile as he stared down at her, his heart doing backflips in his chest. She looked so innocent, peaceful. He frowned. So different to her tormented spirit when she was awake…

As he walked back to camp, carrying her in his arms, he couldn't help but feel that he would do anything to protect her…much like he would TK…but it felt like so much more…

He was startled as he walked into the campsite to see Sora awake, sitting on a rock.

"I'm on watch…" she answered his unspoken question. "Y'know…Tigramon told us a lot about Harmony's past…" she said slowly. Matt blinked.

"Harmony told me a lot too…" they stood in silence, both realising that the digimon and newest digidestined had shown them the same things.

"ummm…Sora?" Matt asked softly.

"Yeah?"

"I- I never thanked you…" Sora was startled.

"For what?" He looked down at Harmony.

"For making me realise something…" the short-haired girl grinned.

"I'm just glad you came to your senses" they smiled at each other and suddenly Harmony sighed in her dreams.

"I better get to sleep…'Night Sora…"

"Goodnight Matt…"

She watched him walk off and gently lower Harmony to the ground, lying down beside her. The guitarist almost instantly wrapped her arms around him for comfort, Matt responding by holding her close as he fell asleep.

Sora smiled and looked up at the stars, arms wrapped about her knees. She was glad they had finally recognised their feelings for each other…but she couldn't help but feel that something big was going to happen…something bad…

Izzy watched sympathetically as Melody cried, realising what Lady Teleoromon had made her do to Harmony.

"It's not your fault…you were being controlled…I'm sure they realise that…" he tried to comfort her.

"Your friends might realise that…but Harmony…oh god, she probably thinks I meant it- after…after what happened the last time I saw her." She sobbed.

"After what happened?"

"I- I can't…tell you…" she cried, hugging her knees. Izzy wished he could hug her and comfort her but the two were chained to a wall in a courtyard-type area. As long as it didn't rain they were fine…

"You can tell me…" he coaxed the girl.

"Are you sure you want to know?" she asked him softly. He nodded his head, his curiosity once again getting the best of him.

"Well then close your eyes…"

Lady Teleoromon watched the two from a tower window. She snarled and turned her back on them, slamming her fists on a table in the room, causing Cobrastramon to jump.

"What is it my Lady?" he hissed, not wanting to upset the evil digimon. Lately he didn't really want to work for her…he felt like quitting but he knew she would kill him if he did…it was really to do with that blonde girl…there was something about her…

He shook himself out of his reverie as the evil digimon began to speak.

"Things aren't going as I planned, Cobrastramon…" she hesitated. "Those brats…Matt and…_Harmony_" she growled with anger. "…are still alive. I was hoping that the temple set-up would work but it has just brought them together…"

She stopped and smiled evilly, in thought.

"But all is not lost, the plan can still be salvaged. Melody and Harmony- they no longer know each other as they used to…not that they even knew each other that well in the first place" she laughed. "You see Cobrastramon, I know something and have accepted it as a fact- unlike so many others who have tried to destroy the digidestined." She looked at the snake digimon as she spoke.

"I know that the digidestined are unbeatable together- and I am not so stupid as to think that I CAN beat them as a group..." she trailed off and looked out the window at the young boy and girl chained to her courtyard wall.

"Even if just one of them believes they will fail, the rest will fall like dominoes…If I can sidetrack Harmony enough with Melody…if I can just force them into an argument…" she gestured to nine black pieces on her table and flicked one, the rest falling one after the other in succession.

"I will win!" Cobrastramon watched in horror, feeling sick as the witch digimon placed all the dominoes in an upright position again. Suddenly a tenth piece appeared in her hand. As an afterthought, she placed it alongside the others.

"Particularly when they do not recognise another of their own…" she chuckled. 

An angelic figure watched far above, frowning as he looked down upon the evil digimon. That was it…there was no way he could stay out now. The digidestined were going to a need a helping hand…

He fingered the crest he held in his hand- the crest of Verity. He just hoped **_she_** could get it to glow on time…and Cobrastramon would realise his true calling…

His hand closed over the crest and the white, winged figure disappeared in a shower of silver stardust.

It was time…

::sheepish:: yeah I know…you're probably getting bored- it's getting so long! ^_^ As I said, I never was capable of writing short stuff! Well ::yawns:: I better give my hands a break before I end up with RSI or something…8-) See ya in the next part!


	10. Default Chapter Title

****

THE CREST OF UNITY: Part 12

::cracks knuckles:: And thus comes the next part of the story…::sighs:: thanx again to the people who ARE reviewing *hint hint* ^_^ and if you aren't, please do! Input is much appreciated! Cause I know there are people reading this story…lots in fact…::narrows eyes:: I checked my statistics!…/8-I

Anyhoo, I don't own digimon yada yada yada and don't sue cause I have no money…you can have my stamp collection though! =^_^=

__

"Izzy…"

The computer whiz slowly opened his eyes.

"Izzy…"

Eyes still heavy-lidded, the redhead clumsily lifted his head and squinted, for there was a sudden bright light…all around…

"Koushiro Izumi!"

Izzy blinked, startled, and looked up fully, eyes half closed as the dazzling white light surrounded him. As his eyes adjusted he could see a white figure standing in front of him.

"Who…are you?" he asked with his natural curiosity. Although he could not clearly see the person's face, he could sense him smiling. He walked forward and knelt down in front of the young scientific genius, pressing something into his hand.

"Make sure she gets this"

"Who gets what?" the boy asked, confused. Although his visitor was now close up, the image was still a blur…a dark-haired male dressed in white was all he could see as the bright light blinded him.

"You'll know when you see her…just make sure she gets it" the figure began to slowly fade away in a misty light.

"Wait! Who are you?" Izzy called out, but the figure was gone.

Izzy woke up with a start. He sat up straight, his metal chains rattling against the cold courtyard wall.

"hmmmm…I wonder what that was about?" the boy analysed his dreams, much like he would any other situation. He was about to bring a hand to his chin to ponder what had happened, when he felt something solid clenched in his gloved fist. He was startled as he realised how familiar he was with the oddly shaped object.

Like lightning he brought his hand up in front of his face and opened it to reveal it's contents. Lying in his palm was a tag and crest…and they weren't his own. He fell back against the wall as he wondered whose it was. He thought it had all just been a dream…

He looked down at the crest in his hand. Oh it was real alright…but whom did it belong to?

Suddenly he heard a movement nearby and turned to see Melody stirring in her sleep. He smiled to himself as he thought about how graceful she looked in her slumber…although dirty and unkempt, she still was very beautiful underneath the cuts and bruises… He blinked, trying to figure out what he was feeling, but unlike so many puzzles he had triumphed over in the past, his own emotions were still unsolved mysteries…

"Izzy?" he looked up as the blonde girl groggily sat upright, her voice husky and warm with sleep. He felt his heart do a small dance number in his chest.

"Uhh…y-yeah?…" he stuttered.

"Why…are you…awake?" she yawned, looking incredibly cute as she did so, blinking dazedly. 

"Well I-" the redhead was stopped in mid-sentence as his eye caught sight of something peeking out of the pocket of her torn and battered black skirt.

"Where did you get that?" he asked sharply, his breathing becoming shallow and his excitement slowly building. Melody looked puzzled for a moment and followed his gaze to the pocket of her long skirt. When she realised what he was looking at she pulled out the object.

"What? You mean this?" she held out a digivice. Izzy breathed in deeply and looked from the digivice, to the crest and back again.

"What's that?" the blonde artist gestured at the tag and crest. "Can I have a look?" she asked, her own curiosity almost as great as his. He nodded and held it out. For once in his life he was speechless. The redhead bit his lip as her hand reached out for it and during that brief moment it began to glow. Melody pulled her hand back in surprise and gazed down at the digivice in her hand as it began to shrill loudly. She looked back up and watched with awe and fear as the crest and tag floated out of Izzy's hand towards her. The blonde girl shrank back, as it's cords slipped over her head.

"Don't worry…it's alright" Izzy assured the girl and she sat stock still as the crest and tag hung itself about her neck. The digivice stopped its screeching and all was silent as the blonde artist cautiously held up the crest in front of her.

"What…is it?" she whispered. The computer whiz suddenly heard a voice speak to his heart and he blinked, listening.

"The-Crest of…Verity…" he said, dazed. He gazed at her with awe.

"You're…a digidestined…" 

Matt felt the dawn light hit his eye-lids, warm and bright; it was going to be another hot day…He blinked and proceeded to sit up but realised something was weighing him down. The rebel glanced down and saw the angelic face of the digidestined he had come to love; long black tendrils of hair scattered over her skin, causing him to smile. She stirred slightly in her sleep and one of her arms came up to circle his neck. He grinned and was overpowered by the heated urge to kiss her. Not realising what he was doing, the blonde leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, tasting the salt from her tears of the previous night. Harmony's muffled sigh passed his mouth and suddenly her own lips pressed harder against his as she began to wake up. He made a gruff noise in the back of his throat as she came into full awareness, her tongue slipping into his mouth, dancing over and around his. The guitarist sat up and before they knew it they were both frenching madly.

"Hey! You two! Would you like to have breakfast, or would you prefer to eat each other's faces?!"

They broke apart; arms still around each other, to see Tai grinning madly at them. But instead of getting angry, Matt just smirked at him.

"I think you're just jealous!" The leader was surprised by the rebel's mild reaction and was about to form a comeback of his own when he felt someone's arm slip around him.

"He better not be!" Sora grinned, squeezing Tai. They laughed and the tomboyish girl held up some fish she had caught. Biyomon danced up to her side.

"Breakfast!!!" the pink bird digimon cried, waking up Joe and Mimi.

"Well well well, if it isn't sleeping beauty and her charming prince!" Gomamon grinned, having woken up earlier. Joe and Mimi blushed, causing the digimon and other digidestined to laugh. Suddenly TK and Kari came running up to them, followed closely by Gatomon and Patomon.

"Dessert!" they shouted together, dumping a large pile of berries and other fruits they had found on a flat rock.

"Well, let's get started on breakfast then!" Gabumon stared at the food hungrily and they all set about creating a small feast for themselves.

Matt looked down at Harmony.

"Well, what do you think?"

"Hmmm…I definitely like your idea of a wake-up call!" she licked her lips and smiled up at him mischievously. He blushed slightly.

"I was talking about breakfast!"

"Sure you were!" Harmony winked and Matt was startled by her easy, laid-back attitude. She seemed so happy. He sighed, shaking his head and grinning.

"Come on!" he took her by the hand and helped her up, leading her over to the others to start the meal.

Lady Teleoromon was once again at her tower window, watching Izzy and Melody. She was suspicious of whatever it was they were talking about for they were chattering away quite excitedly…

The evil digimon turned away and slammed her fists down on the table again. Her plans were going astray and she knew they were all based on the single hope that Harmony and Melody would fight each other- but what if they didn't?

The witch leaned back against a wall, lost in thought. It seemed the only way to get them to fight was to gain control of Melody again, but this time she would have to make it more…natural… Last time she had controlled everything Melody did and it had taken all of her power, which was why the digidestined had nearly defeated her with just two pathetic digimon… No, when she met up with them again she could not waste all of her power on controlling Melody. This time she would use one of the oldest tricks in the book…

She clapped her hands together and a book of spells appeared in front of her. The pages flicked over by themselves before stopping at the one she required. She looked up, eyes narrowed.

This time she would just use Melody's natural feelings and magnify them ten fold…until all hell would break loose…

"Oh yeah that was good!" Tai leaned back, feeling fully satisfied after a large breakfast. The others all agreed but Tentomon remained silent, looking down at the ground. Harmony watched, feeling sorry for the digimon who had hardly touched any of the food. She glanced at Tigramon who had also noticed something was wrong.

"Are you alright Tentomon?" the cat digimon asked sympathetically. He sighed.

"I'm worried about Izzy…" the mechanical bug answered sadly. Agumon put a claw on his back.

'I'm sure he's fine buddy!" 

"Yeah- c'mon, finish eating! When you find him, you want to be able to digivolve, don't you?!" Gomamon encouraged him. Tentomon looked up in shock.

"Yes, of course!" he began to eat away hurriedly and Sora smiled.

"So what's today's plan of action?" she asked, looking around.

"Well I say we keep going towards that spooky castle! I bet that's where we'll find Izzy and maybe even Melody!" Tai glanced at Harmony for a moment then turned to Matt, expecting him to disagree. He was surprised when the blonde remained silent and nodded in agreement.

Matt was AGREEING with him???!!! Well, there was a first for everything…

Tai was about to continue when suddenly the flat rock they had been eating off began to shake. They all jumped up and backed away, watching in surprise as a familiar holographic image appeared. Gennai. But instead of seeing a clear image, the hologram began to blink wildly, the signal interrupted.

"Signal…talk long…other…digi...find…"

"What are you talking about Gennai? We can't understand you!!" Tai said, frustrated. Suddenly the connection was broken and Gennai disappeared.

"Wait!" he called out, but it was too late. He swung a fist through the air.

"Damn!" Sora took hold of his arm, trying to calm him down.

"I wonder what that was all about?" Joe spoke up, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

"Well- whatever it is, it will have to wait! We need to find Izzy…and Melody…" Matt slipped his hand into Harmony's and gave it a comforting squeeze. She smiled up at him gratefully. By this time, Tai had calmed down.

"Yeah- you're right! Let's go!" he said and everyone cleared up the campsite and moved out towards the huge castle still miles ahead of them.

__

"Remember who you are…"

Cobrastramon writhed in his sleep, he just wanted to forget.

"No! What are you afraid of?! Remember your past without fear, return to your true identity!"

"NO! I can't!" the snake cried out in fear.

"You can, remember who you are!"

"Who I am?"

"Yes, your identity!"

"My identity- but this is all I have ever known!"

The voice continued to haunt him.

"It isn't all you've ever known! Don't you remember?"

"All I remember…is I was waiting for someone! But she never came!"

"She has now…find her"

"But, who is she?"

"You will know, it is in your heart…" the voice faded away.

"Wait…wait…."

"Wait!!!" the snake woke up fearfully, looking around his pitch-black room.

The dream…what did it mean?

The snake's eyes flicked open in shock as the answers flashed before him, sending tingling shocks up and down his spine to the tip of his tail.

He knew…he had always known, he just ignored it…

Cobrastramon narrowed his eyes in the darkness.

He had ignored it for so long…but he couldn't anymore…he knew who he was looking for, and he had found her…

Izzy watched in horror as once again Lady Teleoromon forced Melody to drink a black, oozing potion. The blonde girl began to choke as she was thrown to the ground, writhing in agony.

"Melody!" the computer whiz called out anxiously, watching the artist fall unconscious. The evil digimon began to laugh.

"Really, if I didn't know better I'd say you cared for her! Well say your good-byes while you can because when your friends get here, I shall destroy you all!"

the witch roared with laughter and walked away, back into her dark, gloomy castle. The redhead looked down sadly and reached out to stroke the blonde hair of the latest digidestined. Suddenly he heard a slithering sound to his right. He looked up, startled and locked eyes with his well known, snake-like enemy; Cobrastramon.

"What do you want?!" Izzy said spitefully, for the first time finally understanding what it was like to feel pure anger towards someone.

"I- I'm sorry" the digimon hissed, causing Izzy to fall back against the wall in surprise. He watched as the snake twisted his tail around so a pair of keys on a chain became visible. He remained in silent shock, watching Cobrastramon fiddle with his chains, unlocking the iron cuffs. The metal fell to the ground with a loud rattle and the snake looked around in fear, almost afraid of his own shadow. Izzy stood up, letting the circulation return to his limbs and grabbed the keys off the snake, hurriedly undoing Melody's bindings. The girl groaned.

"mmm….Izzy?"

"Shhh!" the redhead put a finger to his lips.

"Quick! We must get out of here! Follow me!!!" Cobrastramon whispered anxiously.

"Why should we trust you?" Izzy turned on him. The snake looked down.

"Why indeed?" They remained in silence for a few moments and the computer whiz sighed.

"I guess we have no other choice…help me with Melody" the snake nodded and wrapped the blonde artist tightly in his coils like he had done with Izzy, raising her high in the air.

"Let's go…"

The redhead raced after the fast-moving snake, towards a pitch-black entrance, their only way out of the nightmarish castle.

Harmony was meters ahead of everyone else, anxious to find her sister.

"Woah! Slow down Harmony!" Tai called out to her and Matt pushed him slightly.

"Can't you see she's worried about Melody? Geez…"

Tai was about to fight when he felt Sora take hold of his arm.

"Leave it Tai" she whispered. He sighed and let Matt go, watching him run to catch up to Harmony.

Matt slipped a hand into Harmony's.

"She'll be okay" he said softly and wrapped an arm about her waist. She sighed and leaned against him, laying her head on his shoulder.

"I- I just…" but she was interrupted as her digivice began to beep. Matt looked down in surprise as his did the same. They both stopped walking and looked at the electronic pieces.

"What's up guys?" Joe called out, wondering why they had stopped moving. The guitarist and rebel grinned, looking up at the others.

"I think we've picked up Izzy's signal!" Harmony called out happily. Tai looked startled.

"No way…" the others all ran up to them and soon their digivices began beeping too.

"Then he must be in the castle"

"We're so close"

"Yay! We found them!" everyone began talking at once and Kari and TK jumped up and down. Harmony watched them sadly and walked a few paces ahead. Suddenly her digivice began beeping twice as much. Glancing down, she was shocked to see a second dot appear on the small screen, very close to Izzy.

Matt glanced up, wondering where Harmony had got to. He was relieved to see her standing only a couple of meters away in front of them, but frowned as he watched her face. She seemed surprised over something…

As if she could sense him staring at her, she glanced up at him with a bewildered expression on her face.

"What's wrong Harmony?" Matt called out anxiously, causing the others to stop chattering.

"Guys…please come over and stand here with me and tell me if you see the same thing as I do on your digivices…"

The others looked at one another, puzzled, but complied with her request and crowded around her, staring at their digivices.

"What the…" Joe started.

"But that can't be right…" Kari spoke up.

"Another signal?!" Matt voiced the thought going through everyone's heads. On each of their digivices was another small dot, very pale and weak compared to Izzy's but there all the same. They all looked at Harmony's digivice over her shoulders and were surprised to find the signal slightly stronger on hers.

"That's weird…why would Harmony's digivice pick up the signal better than ours?" Tai asked out loud and watched in confusion as the guitarist's eyes widened.

"Melody…" she whispered softly, but loud enough for the others to hear. They all fell into shocked silence.

"You don't think that…"

"But how…"

"Gennai!" TK said suddenly and they all turned to look at him.

"Don't you remember…we couldn't understand what he was saying, but it was about finding something…"

"…or someone!" Matt caught on quickly.

"Yes…now that I think about it," Sora began. "I heard Gennai say the word 'digi' but I thought he must have been talking about digimon, or digiworld…but he could have been talking about-"

"A digidestined" Tai finished for her, everyone falling silent again. Matt watched Harmony carefully as she turned away from them, looking towards the castle.

"Melody…" she whispered. "You don't think…she could be the tenth digidestined…do you?"

When the others remained silent she turned towards them, wild-eyed.

"I- I have to find her…" she turned and began running, leaving the others frozen where they were. Tai shook his head.

"Come on!" 

"This way…" Cobrastramon hissed and Izzy ran after the snake, following the glowing rings around his neck and tail in the dark passage. They came to a fork in the hallway and the snake digimon turned a corner only to see an enormous black dragon hopping towards him. Cobrastramon backed away, bumping into Izzy.

"Detour…" he hissed and turned down another passage only to see a large sphinx-like bird digimon coming towards him that way.

"Damn" he snarled and turned towards Izzy.

"We're gonna have to go back the way we came" Izzy nodded, frowning and began to run back towards the courtyard, Cobrastramon right behind him. He came into a large open room and skidded to a halt as he heard the familiar voice of Lady Teleoromon call out.

"Cobrastramon!"

The snake nearly dropped Melody at hearing the witch's voice.

"Quick, take Melody!" he shoved the girl into Izzy's arms and pushed him behind a wall.

"You're gonna have to find your way out of here on your own! I'll try and keep Lady Teleoromon busy as long as possible!"

The computer whiz had no time to form a reply as the evil digimon in question entered the room.

"There you are Cobrastramon! Come! We must prepare my forces to fight those tiresome digidestined!" she turned around and the snake had no choice but to follow her, glancing back briefly towards Izzy and Melody's hiding place.

The computer whiz breathed out in a sigh of relief as the snake and Lady Teleoromon left the room. By this time Melody had regained her senses and was able to walk of her own accord…with a little bit of help from Izzy…

"Where to now?" she whispered in his ear, causing him to shiver as the hot air danced over his neck.

"Uh- I-I guess we ummm…go back to the courtyard and uh…try and get out…that way" he said breathlessly. He blushed, glad it was so dark as he grabbed Melody's hand.

"This way!"

Harmony stood staring up at the high, black stone wall in front of her, feeling disheartened.

"How do we get in?" she turned around to look at the others. Suddenly Biyomon came flying their way.

"The place looks deserted" she said, panting slightly.

"Well, is there a way in?" Sora asked her digimon.

"Yes- a draw-bridge."

"Where is it?" Tai asked.

"This way!" the pink bird flew off, following the high wall to their right. The others looked at each other and shrugged, following Sora's digimon until they could see a huge draw-bridge…but instead of finding it locked, it was already down…

"Almost as if, someone is waiting for us…" Joe trailed off and felt Mimi grab hold of his arm.

"Don't say things like that!" she said worriedly.

"Don't worry Mimi! I'll protect you" the spectacled boy whispered in her ear and she blushed slightly.

"Like I said- the place is deserted" Biyomon repeated, feeling anxious.

"Hmmm…could be a trap" Matt said seriously.

"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Tai bravely walked towards the bridge, leaving everyone with no choice but to follow him. Harmony fell into step with Tentomon.

"Thinking about Izzy?" the mechanical bug nodded. "Probably as much as you are about Melody" he answered. The two fell silent. Matt looked back and was about to go comfort Harmony when he felt Sora grab hold of his arm.

"Leave them Matt, right at this moment, they really need each other" she said and the rebel sighed.

"Alright" he replied indifferently and walked up to the front next to Tai. He knew Harmony would never be happy until they found Melody, and right then he felt he would do almost anything for her.

Lady Teleoromon began to laugh maniacally as she watched the digidestined walk into her castle, totally unprepared for what they were about to face. Cobrastramon sat coiled up a few metres from her, feeling worried about both Izzy and particularly Melody. Suddenly he felt his heart twist in his chest as one of the witch's servants burst into the room.

"Lady Teleromon!" the small, spider-like digimon cried.

"Rghh…I thought I told you not to disturb me!" the evil digimon turned around in a flurry of black and red satin.

"I know M'Lady…but, the blonde girl and the boy with the crest of knowledge have escaped!"

Lady Teleoromon fell back in shock and Cobrastramon closed his eyes in despair.

"WHAT?! NO! Come Cobrastramon!!!" she stalked out of the room and the snake reluctantly followed her.

Izzy looked up at the high wall, lost in thought. Now how was he going to get out of this mess??? Suddenly a loud voice interrupted his daydream.

"ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO LOOK IN THE COURTYARD?"

"That's Cobrastramon!" Melody whispered.

"He must be trying to warn us! Come on! Hide!!!!" the two split up and scrambled to find a place to hide. Melody ducked behind a pile of broken stones and bricks while Izzy quickly climbed a small tree and hid within its branches.

"Rrrhghhh…show yourselves! I know you're here!!!" Lady Teleoromon screeched but all was silent as she glanced around the courtyard, eyes narrowed.

"Very well! By the stars and the planets…" the witch began, invoking one of her spells. Izzy held his breath, wondering what the evil digimon was doing.

"Melody! Come forth and do my bidding!" 

The computer whiz gasped as Melody moaned loudly and suddenly stood up from behind the pile of rubble, walking in a zombie fashion towards Lady Teleoromon. Izzy gritted his teeth and closed his eyes in despair. They flicked open again as he heard Melody scream. The witch digimon had Melody by the neck and much like a cat, one of her nails flashed forward out of her finger, lengthening to the size of a sharp kitchen knife. She brought it close to Melody's neck.

"Alright boy!" she sneered, referring to Izzy. "Show yourself or she DIES!" the redhead closed his eyes again and gripped the branches he was sitting on tightly. He had no choice…

"NOW!" the digimon screamed and the computer whiz slid down out of the tree. As he showed himself the witch threw Melody to the ground, Cobrastramon watching in horror. Lady Teleoromon raised her hands above her head and created a ball of burning black light, much like the one she had thrown at Tai.

"You have served your purpose as bait! Your friends are now in the castle, exactly where I want them so I have no further use for you! Say your prayers!" she snarled, throwing the fiery ball at Izzy. The redhead stood frozen to the spot when suddenly his legs came crashing out from under him, the black light zooming over his head. He heard the attack slam into the tree he had been hiding in and it fell to the ground with a thundering crack. The computer whiz, looked around, trying to find whom it was that had saved him. His eyes settled on Cobrastramon. The snake had used its tail to knock him over- the snake digimon had saved him!

"What is this about Cobrastramon?!" Lady Teleoromon snarled.

"You said you wouldn't hurt them" the snake narrowed his eyes. The witch laughed loudly.

"I said no such thing Cobrastramon, and even if I had, you should know that I never keep promises!" she raised her hands again and her body glowed black. The snake screamed as he began to glow black too.

"Now you shall pay for your betrayal!" the evil digimon howled with laughter and threw the snake into a wall incredibly hard. Cobrastramon groaned and crumpled to the ground, leaving his imprint in the stone wall.

"Cobrastramon!" Melody cried out and crawled over to the hurt digimon.

"Foolish girl!" Lady Teleoromon spat and turned back to Izzy.

"Now to finish you off!" raising her hands in the air a third time, her eyes glowed black.

"No!" Melody screamed. "Izzy!!!!"

K, ummm…sorry to end it here but there really was no other place that I could end it cause otherwise it would be WAAAY too long! So, I hope you liked and Jehana; I know you wanna see some action between Melody and Izzy so go read the next and final part! ^_~ That's right! Only ONE MORE PART TO GO!!! ::sniff:: man I'll be sad to see this end…^_^


	11. Default Chapter Title

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THE CREST OF UNITY: Part 13

That's right peeps! The LAST PART! [plus an Epilogue…^_^] Hope you guys like and thanx for reading and reviewing my story! ^_^ BTW the song at the end is not mine; it is 'Iris' by the Goo Goo Dolls and Jehana? Cause you wanted to see some Izzy and Melody action, the Epilogue in particular is dedicated to you!!!! ^_~

Tai walked at the front of the group, followed closely by Harmony and Tentomon who were anxious about their loved ones. The leader checked his digivice once again, as did Harmony.

"We're very close." he said, feeling frustrated.

"Yes…Melody's signal is getting stronger!" Harmony said with excitement.

Suddenly they heard a thundering crash ahead of them and some one screaming.

"That sounds like Melody!" the guitarist said, panicking. She was about to run ahead of them when she felt Matt grab hold of her arm.

"No-we do this together" he said, squeezing her hand. She had no time to reply as Tentomon started to glow.

"Hey! Izzy must be here!" he said excitedly. "I- I'm digivolving!"

"Tentomon digivolve to…KABUTERIMON!!!" in a flash of brilliant light, the mechanical bug became a giant insect, squishing Mimi into the wall.

"Oh I forgot…when you get bigger, you get a LOT bigger!" she squealed.

"Oh, uh…sorry!" the insect rumbled and bounded ahead of them, towards a patch of light that appeared to be an entrance, or rather an exit for them from the dark catacomb. Everyone looked around briefly at each other before running after Izzy's digimon.

Izzy covered his face, preparing to feel the attack that he knew would kill him instantly.

"I love you Melody!" he screamed as the light wooshed towards him.

"ELECTRO SHOCKER!!!!" a familiar voice called out and Lady Teleoromon's attack was blown away in the nick of time by another ball of crackling electricity. The computer whiz blinked and looked up to see his digimon hovering in the air.

"Kabuterimon!" he said with delight. He noticed Melody shrink back into Cobrastramon as his digimon landed.

"Don't worry, he's on our side!" he assured the girl.

"Rgghhhh! What are you doing here?!" the witch screamed at the insect.

"Fighting you!" the insect retorted and suddenly the ground shook as other digimon jumped from the dark courtyard entrance.

"Agumon warp digivolve to…WARGREYMON!"

"Gabumon warp digivolve to…METALGARURUMON!"

"Ikkakumon digivolve to…ZUDOMON!"

"Togemon digivolve to…LILLYMON!"

"Birdramon digivolve to…GARUDAMON!"

"Gatomon digivolve to…ANGEWOMON!"

"Patomon digivolve to…ANGEMON!"

"Kabuterimon digivolve to…MEGAKABUTERIMON!"

Harmony's digimon was the last one out and flew through the air towards Lady Teleoromon.

"Tigramon digivolve to…TELEGURUMON!" the horse-size cat roared and landed in front of the evil witch digimon.

"What do you say now, Teleoromon?" Tai said smugly, their huge and impressive digimon making the witch look like a tiny insect. He watched in confusion as she actually smiled.

"I say my name is LADY Teleoromon" she said calmly to him a second time before raising her hands and head to the sky, grinning evilly.

"Oh spirits of the digital world, join together with the natural forces of the earthly realm and come forth to do my bidding! The evil that lays dormant in every aspect of nature, arise I say and finally unleash yourselves upon this world!" the digidestined watched in fear along with their digimon as the ground began to shake and the once sunny sky darkened to the colour of the night, rumbling dangerously. The winds kicked up and howled menacingly as Lady Teleoromon began to laugh. Suddenly the shaking ground began to break up and from its pits arose a dozen of ugly, beastly digimon thrashing about wildly, as large as MegaKabuterimon. The dragon and sphinx-bird that Izzy had encountered before with Cobrastramon and Melody appeared, growling, hissing and snarling along with several others of their kind. Tai took a step back in shock as some of the same digimon, which they had encountered in Myotismon's castle, appeared.

"ATTACK!" Lady Teleoromon screamed and within seconds the deafening silence was destroyed, the sounds of battle choking the air. Megakabuterimon had taken on two of the beasts that had risen from the earth. No matter how many times he used his horn buster attack they kept coming back for more.

Wargreymon was having a hard time of it too. He had had to use his terraforce twice on a large black dragon and now that it was gone, two similar digimon he had seen in Myotismon's castle took its place!

Lillymon was doing her best using her flower cannon alone for she had discovered that her flower wreath would not work on pure evil, particularly of the spirit type. Matt ran to the edge of the courtyard and scanned the area for Harmony. He quickly spotted TK hugging Kari, watching in fear right on the other side of the battle. They seemed so small and vulnerable compared to the digimon fighting it out for them. He shook his head and soon caught sight of Harmony, who seemed to be talking heatedly with Lady Teleoromon and Melody, the battle around them forgotten. Harmony's digimon was far away from the guitarist, fighting it out with one of sphinx-like creatures. As the blonde watched the two sisters and the evil digimon, the other digidestined ran up to his side, TK and Kari dropping from the sky courtesy of Angemon and Angewomon.

"What's going on?" Tai called out.

"It appears they are in the middle of a rather heated confrontation" Izzy limped up to them.

"IZZY!" they all cried at the same time and hugged him, bombarding the poor redhead with questions.

"Wait! I think at this point in time it is more important to find out what is going on between Harmony, Melody and Lady Teleoromon" he said seriously. The others all silently agreed and turned towards them, only to find Harmony and Melody screaming at each other, the evil witch digimon nowhere in sight.

"God you bitch!" Harmony screamed.

"Who are you calling a bitch?! You were the one that attempted to commit suicide, planning on leaving me behind!!!" Melody threw back at her.

"That's not what I meant to happen!"

"Maybe not, but even so you didn't even stop to think of anyone but yourself! Yeah- it's always about number one, isn't it?!"

Suddenly Telegurumon was attacked from behind and fell to the ground, remaining motionless, but Harmony did not even notice as she continued.

"So what if I don't care about anyone else, no-one did about me! Except for Andante and now he's GONE! Since no-one else would help me, why should I stick with them" Harmony cried, her crest blinking dangerously.

Metalgarurumon jumped into Telegurumon's place, defending the cat as best he could but was instantly swamped by a new wave of evil spirit digimon.

"What's happening?" Kari cried out, watching the chaos unfold. Izzy once again brought his hand to his chin, pondering the situation.

"Of course!" he snapped his fingers, causing everyone to turn and look at him.

"Remember what Pixiemon said? We are only strong together! But Melody and Harmony are fighting! And Harmony has the crest of Unity." He began to explain. "Unity- as in the whole, harmony, being together, fighting as one!" the redhead stopped to get his breath and Sora jumped in.

"So- that means, if one of us falls, the others fall with us, is that what you are saying?" the short-haired girl said anxiously. The computer whiz nodded.

"But…if we want to win, we have to stop Harmony and Melody fighting…" Kari trailed off, all of them turning to look at the two girls. They gasped as Melody suddenly jumped on the guitarist and the two girls rolled on the ground.

"That doesn't seem like Melody!" Izzy said, startled by the girl's aggressive behaviour. He paled as he realised what was going on.

"Oh no…Lady Teleoromon is controlling her again, she doesn't recognize Harmony!" he cried out and Matt ran forward.

"Harmony!!!" he called out and the guitarist turned her head slightly, trying to keep the blonde artist from choking her.

"She's being controlled by Lady Teleoromon! It's not her doing! You have to help her!"

"Yes! She loves you Harmony! She is sorry for what happened! She doesn't recognise you at the moment!" Izzy joined in, the others all chorusing their agreement in the background.

Wargreymon barreled down into the writhing carpet of the evil sphinx digimon attacking Metalgarurumon. He managed to destroy some but was soon tired out. Suddenly a large black dragon jumped on him from behind and he fell to the ground, alongside Metalgarurumon and Telegurumon, barely keeping them at bay.

Harmony looked from the digidestined to her sister and stared into her eyes, realising they were right. Melody's eyes were not their usual violet colour but a dark, glowing black…like Lady Teleoromon…

The guitarist narrowed her own eyes in hate as she thought of what the witch had done, and was doing, to her sister. With an amazing amount of strength she threw Melody off and both stood, panting, leaning over.

"It's me Melody! Please! I'm your sister!" Harmony pleaded with the artist and the girl's eyes briefly flashed. She fell to the ground groaning and looked up, tears welling in her eyes.

"Help me Harmony!" the girl cried before turning back to the nasty shadow of herself. Once again she jumped on the dark-haired girl and tried to choke her. Harmony wracked her brains for something that would snap the blonde girl back into reality. She closed her eyes and psychically forced her way into Melody's mind, flooding the girl's head with memories of their childhood. The artist stumbled back and cried out.

Izzy and Matt both suddenly heard a voice in their heads, soon the other digidestined heard it too and a wind whipped up around them.

__

"Melody must fight it herself, tell her to fight it…she has to face the truth!"

The mysterious voice told them. They glanced at one another before yelling to Harmony and Melody.

"Fight it Melody!" they shouted together and the blonde artist gritted her teeth, staring at Harmony wide-eyed.

"The…truth is, I was jealous, Harmony!" the girl cried out and everyone watched as her crest glowed faintly.

"Of course…her crest is the crest of Verity!" Izzy spoke up excitedly.

"I'm sorry Melody!" Harmony cried. "You were right, Andante and I DID ignore you sometimes!"

"No…not totally, you did ask me to join you two but I declined, my jealousy got in the way…the truth is, you hurt me Harmony!" the blonde cried and her crest glowed even more, Harmony's beginning to glow too.

"I know I acted like I didn't need you, Melody, but in reality…I do need you! We need each other!" she cried and the two fell to their knees, hugging each other as the pain they had endured for so long finally broke free and drowned them. Both of their crests began to glow brightly and everyone looked up as they heard Lady Teleoromon screech.

"Nooo! That's not what's supposed to happen!" she clapped her hands and lightning shot down from the sky, towards Melody. The two girls screamed and the other digidestined watched in fear. Suddenly Cobrastramon slithered as fast as the speed of light in front of the blonde artist and took the full brunt of the blast, crumpling to the ground.

"Cobrastramon!" Melody cried out and Harmony joined her sister at the snake's side. Their crests were still glowing, but they needed something else… Suddenly the digidestined heard the voice again.

__

"Tell them to keep going…there is something they need to do…."

"Keep going!" the others shouted out to Harmony and Melody at the same time. The two girls looked at each other and locked hands.

"The truth is I was jealous" Melody started.

"I've always needed you…" Harmony cried.

"I'M SORRY!" they cried out at the same time and suddenly Cobrastramon and Telegurumon began to glow brightly.

"Telegurumon digivolve to…PYSCATOMON!" there was a flash of bright light as the horse-sized cat evolved to become even larger, the size of a house, now standing on her hind-legs. She wore something that was a mixture between Weregarurumon and Angewomon's outfits. Her arms and legs were incredibly muscular and on her feet she wore knee-high boots, huge metal claws protruding from the bottoms, glinting in the darkness. On her arms were wrist guards with sharp triangular bits of metal standing out dangerously. She wore a silver helmet that covered her face like Wargreymon, with three earrings hanging from each large, sharply pointed ear. With the face of a tiger and the roar of a lion she turned towards Lady Teleoromon, the ground shaking as she brought a foot down with a mighty crash.

"Woahhhh…" Tai breathed and all the other digidestined remained in awed silence. In fact, all the fighting around them had stopped and even the digimon, both good and evil, were staring at Tigramon's ultimate form. But it wasn't over yet.

"Cobrastramon digivolve to…ASTROGEKAMON!" the same blinding light surrounded the snake and everyone watched with the same awe as he evolved before their eyes. The snake grew large black and silver wings as well as arms and legs, standing upright beside Psycatomon. Cobrastramon no longer looked like a snake but had a more lizard-like gargoyle appearance. He was still green in colour with the same rings around neck and tail, but this time they were black instead of gold. Astrogekamon stood a head shorter than Psycatomon and was much thiner but was still impressively large. He wore the same protective gear on legs and arms as Wargreymon but silver and black in colour. He whirled around to face Lady Teleoromon, tail cracking through the air like a whip.

The silence was deafening as Psycatomon and Astrogekamon stared down the evil witch, who floated above them, confidence fading slightly, all sensible thoughts and well-organised plans leaving her head. Like all other evil digimon they had faced, she was overcome by the greedy need to win, the want of power destroying her.

"Rggghhh…It's not over yet!" she screamed and began chanting in some ancient language.

"What's she doing?!" Matt said angrily.

"Yeah! What's with the giberish?!" Tai backed up the blonde rebel.

"Hmmm…I believe it is some sort of dead language, it sounds like Latin but slightly different…" Izzy analysed the words but was snapped out of his daydream as all the evil spirits their friends had been fighting dissolved, their digimon falling to the ground. Harmony, Melody and their digimon watched with the others as the evil forces spun together and surrounded Lady Teleoromon. The sky rumbled with thunder and lightning crashed down over the witch as the evil spirit digimon combined with her body. Everyone watched in fear as she grew larger and larger, until she towered over them, as huge as the tallest skycraper…and the same size as Vennomyotismon…it was happening again…

She hissed and screeched as she grew large saber-tooth fangs and her hair turned into a writhing mass of live snakes. Green saliva dripped from a forked-tongue as she grew eight long legs, evolving into a giant tarantula. Mimi screamed and Harmony shuddered.

"Oh man, I always hated spiders…" she backed away in fear. Lady Teleoromon laughed, her female voice echoing over the top of a deep, male voice that rumbled from the centre of her being.

"Presenting Poisonateleoromon! The one who will cause your downfall digidestined!"

"Not if we can help it! Lets go!" Angemon shouted to the other digimon and they all jumped to their feet, racing towards the huge Mega.

"Go Metalgarurumon!" Matt yelled.

"Yeah! Angewomon and Angemon rule!" Kari and TK shouted along with the other encouraging remarks made by the digidestined. Astrogekamon and Psycatomon turned to Harmony and Melody. The two girls looked at each other then back at their digimon.

"Go for it!" they shouted up to them at the same time and the two ultimate digimon nodded. Astrogekamon rose into the air and flew towards Poisonateleoromon, hissing. Pyscatomon ran like lightning towards the huge evil digimon.

"Terraforce!" Wargreymon zoomed towards the evil mega only to be blasted back by a black light. The other digimon too were thrown back as they called out their attacks.

"Psychic spears!" Astrogekamon called and flung his wings forward, thousands of deadly sparks flying towards the evil digimon. But Poisonateleoromon only swung two spider legs down and the spears hurtled towards Melody's digimon, hitting him full force. The lizard groaned, falling to the ground. He gritted his teeth as he jumped to his feet and flew straight up into the air.

"Telewhip!" Psycatomon yelled, bringing her claws down in a swinging arc. Suddenly flashes of blue electricity appeared as she made a scratching motion, the light flying towards Poisonateleoromon. This time the attack hit her and she stumbled, but stood again, Pyscatomon's telewhip hardly phasing her. 

"Rggaaahhh!" she roared, the sound echoing through the sky like actual thunder. She brought her spider legs towards her chest and formed a large flaming black ball. The evil witch threw it at the digimon and they all went flying, the black light hitting them full force, causing them to de-digivolve back to in-training. Matt and Tai ran to Koromon and Tsunomon.

"I'm sorry Matt" Tsunomon started

"We…couldn't hold out any longer." Koromon finished, both feeling ashamed.

"It's okay buddy" Tai said

"Yeah- you tried your best!" Matt comforted his digimon. All the other digimon slowly dedigivolved back to in-training. Poisonateleoromon took an earth-shaking step forward.

"Now to destroy you all! DEATH BLAST!" she roared and black waves began to radiate from her body towards the digidestined and the digimon. 

Psycatomon was crouched on one knee, breathing heavily. A bright light slowly surrounded her but she seemed determined to stay in her ultimate form. Astrogekamon had already returned to his form as Cobrastramon, lying unconscious on the ground. Harmony bit her lip as she looked around before returning her gaze to her digimon. She took a step forward, causing everyone to look at her.

"Psycatomon! Psychic Union!" although no one else had any idea what she was talking about, the were-cat seemed to have an idea.

"No Harmony…I don't want to hurt you-"

"Do it Psycatomon!" Harmony said dangerously. The digimon gritted her teeth, not wanting to hurt her companion. As she felt her body about to change back to her in-training form she came to a decision.

"rrghhh…" she growled under her breath. "PSYCHIC UNION!" suddenly her body glowed a bright blue as she grew strong again, her form remaining as Psycatomon. The digidestined turned to look at Harmony as she screamed.

"Harmony!" Matt said, terrified as he watched her body glow blue also. The guitarist slowly floated into the air, her body convulsing with pain as she felt the life being drained out of her. Suddenly a large barrier flew up around them as Poisonateleoromon's Death Blast finally hit them, flying off the protective wall that surrounded all of them. They realised that it was Pyscatomon's doing but still had no idea what was wrong with Harmony.

"Oh no…oh no…" they heard Izzy mutter and they all glanced over at him to see that he was once again on his computer which Joe had returned to him. Although the screen was cracked it seemed to work fine and the computer whiz was looking up information on Psycatomon.

"Oh this is not good…"

"What?!" Melody said, feeling agitated as she watched her sister writhe in pain, floating in midair. 

"Psychic Union…is one of Psycatomon's side attacks. You know how our digimon have to be close to us to digivolve?" when they all nodded he continued. "Well, as you know, it is because they need to use our energy to get past that digivolving barrier. The same goes with this 'Psychic Union'- Harmony is giving Psycatomon all her energy to make the digimon stronger. But…"

"But what?!" Matt said impatiently, worried about the digidestined he had come to love.

"Well, unfortunately, although this attack can be used for a short time with absolutely no problem, the longer the connection is held, the more dangerous it becomes for the energy source- in this case Harmony…" he trailed off and they all turned to look at the girl gasping for air. Matt clenched his hands into fists.

"So what can we do?"

"Nothing I'm afraid…it's their own choice and if we attempt to interfere we could possibly cut the connection too fast and kill not only ourselves but the people involved."

"Damn!" Matt cussed under his breath and looked over at the teary-eyed Melody. Izzy continued.

"And I hate to say this but…if they don't break the connection soon it could very well kill Harmony anyway"

The blonde rebel fell to the ground and they all watched the scene playing before their eyes. She was doing it…for them…the protective barrier between them and Poisonateleoromon who was going crazy, trying to attack them but failing miserably. Suddenly Harmony gasped and they all watched in fear as the barrier blinked wildly. Melody screamed as she saw the guitarist pass out and fall to the ground in a crumpled heap. The dark-haired girl groaned and Melody ran to her side. Matt was about to do the same when the barrier failed completely and Psycatomon finally de-digivolved to her in-training form of Katelemon. Poisonateleoromon threw a ball of black fire towards them, scattering the digidestined in all directions as it engulfed the ground in flames. They ran as trees and the courtyard wall crumbled away completely with one swipe of the evil digimon's spider claws. Soon they were scattered around Poisonateleoromon thinking about what was could do next.

"No! It can't be over! We can still win!" TK told himself as he felt the fear rise in him.

"Why is she so evil? Why is this happening?" Kari's eyes welled with tears as she thought about the pointless destruction.

"This is unfair! It's over! She's going to destroy me and my friends and there's nothing I can do about it!" Mimi cried to herself.

"How is all this even possible?!" Izzy thought to himself, once again drowning in his own curiosity. 

"It can't be over…the others need me" Joe stared up at the huge Mega before him.

"I can't let her hurt my friends!" Sora clenched her fists in determination.

"I've let everyone down again!…I let down Harmony…" Matt began to beat himself up mentally.

"I WON'T give up!" Tai narrowed his eyes as he stared up at Poisonateleoromon. Suddenly he felt something warm against his chest and saw his crest glowing. Glancing around at his friends, he noticed theirs were doing the same.

"Everyone! Look at you crests!" they all glanced down at their crests…it was happening again! Light shot out from each and wrapped around the huge evil mega, holding her in place.

"Rgggh! What's the meaning of this?!" the witch digimon roared. Tai glanced around and saw Melody and Harmony in the distance. The guitarist was barely conscious but had found enough strength to raise her crest in the air.

"We can still win this if we work together!" she thought to herself and suddenly light shot out of her crest too, flying upwards in a silver flash towards Poisonateleoromon, to wrap around the tarantula's neck.

"This is it! No more lies or deceit!" Melody thought triumphantly to herself and her crest glowed as well, a bright golden-yellow, wrapping around the digimon's legs and bringing her to her knees.

"NOOOO!" she screamed and then laughed.

"Well- you digidestined really are in a mess now! How do you expect to defeat me when your digimon are in their pitiful IN-TRAINING stages?" she roared with laughter.

"Oh maaaan…" Tai hadn't thought of this and glanced up in surprise along with the others as black light began to seep from Poisonateleoromon's body and into their crests through the light-lines. Tai suddenly felt very dizzy and fell to his knees, as did the rest of digidestined, feeling a burning sensation in his chest.

Matt glanced over at Harmony as he heard Melody scream and almost fell over in shock for the light was seeping the most into Harmony's body, causing her to fall unconscious, noticeably on the brink of death.

"Harmony!" Matt cried and gritted his teeth as the black light trailed down into his own crest.

It was over, really over…For the first time they knew they couldn't beat the evil they were faced with.

Suddenly a terrifying wind whipped up, showering them all with silver sand and Posionateleoromon screamed, causing the digidestined to look up in surprise. For above the tarantula, the sky had opened up and bright white light had burst through, covering the evil witch in it's burning hot rays. The digimon screamed and the blackness faded from each of the digidestined as the evil Mega slowly lost all her power and energy. Black light faded from her body and dissolved into the atmosphere. The teenagers watched as she shrank in height and power, returning to ultimate form of Lady Teleoromon. She was down on one knee and Mimi felt like vomiting as the witch brought her head up. It appeared that the bright light had burnt the digimon's skin beyond recognition and the pink-crazy girl could hear her body hissing as the steam rose, the white hot light still hitting her dead on. Lady Teleoromon groaned in pain and snarled, squinting through the bright light, appearing to watch the silver sand wind that was hovering in front of Harmony and Melody. The digidestined followed her gaze and watched in surprise as the wind decreased and a figure dressed in white appeared. It was a teenage boy with dark black hair in a similar style to Matt's and as he glanced up at them with a smirk on his face, they were all startled to see the dark-violet eyes that stared back at them.

"No…way…" Matt breathed.

"An-Andante?" the boy turned to see Melody cradling Harmony's head in her lap, her face one of bewilderment.

"In the flesh...err…spirit, sis!" Andante grinned at his blonde sister who fell into a shocked silence, mouth agape.

"_Andante_" Lady Teleoromon growled at the drummer. Andante turned and scowled at her.

"Been a long time, hasn't it Madame Tarrin? Or should I say, Teleoromon?"

"It's LADY Teleoromon!" the digimon screeched for a third time. Harmony's brother threw his hands up in the air.

"Give it up, will you?!!"

If not for the situation, Matt might have found his response quite funny. Suddenly the dark-haired boy snapped his fingers and crossed his arms. The bright light over the witch grew stronger, causing the evil digimon to scream.

"You've caused enough pain and suffering Teleoromon!" Andante said over the screaming, watching her melt into a black liquid. "Especially for myself and my two sisters. It's over Teleoromon… It's over." He watched as the witch screamed one last time before dissolving completely into the black mess. It then flew up into the air, smashing into thousands of data shards and dissolving in the atmosphere. Everyone watched as the last pieces flew over the horizon.

Tai grinned to himself and chuckled, then laughed louder and louder. Koromon jumped into his arms and they stood up, doing a little dance.

"We won! We won!" The others got up too, began to congratulate themselves, and hugged each other.

"It's over!"

"We did it!"

"Finally!"

Matt turned to look at Melody who was crying over Harmony's body and felt his heart twist in his chest. He looked up and saw Andante hovering over the two of them, sitting cross-legged in the air. The twin glanced up and stared at Matt with a grim look on his face before disappearing in a whirlwind of silver stardust.

"Hey…where'd Andante go?" Tai came up to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, but the rebel shook it off and walked towards Harmony, kneeling down at her side. The others glanced at each other and fell silent, running over to join him and Melody. The artist stared up at them with a tear-streaked face, wild-eyed.

"She's dead! She…she's dead…" the blonde girl burst into tears and sobbed. Izzy knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and threw herself into his arms, surprising the computer whiz, but he instantly held her close, comforting her in her grief over the loss of her other sibling.

"Matt?" Sora said softly, but he knelt on one knee, stock-still, head down. His fists were clenched and shoulders quaked with effort to stop himself from crying.

"Matt…" Tai attempted to comfort him too as he put an arm around Sora. The blonde stood up and shoved past the leader, storming away and turning his back on them, standing alone in the middle of the crumbling courtyard. 

Tai was about to go after him when he was stopped by Sora again.

"Leave him be…" she said softly and the leader sighed, nodding. They turned back to the still body and fell into a sad silence.

Matt closed his eyes tightly, willing the tears away. God how could this happen? Harmony! Of all people…

__

"Harmony…"

The rebel raised his head, thinking he heard some-one's voice.

__

"Andante!"

He turned around towards his friends again and glanced upwards. He gasped as he saw the familiar shapes of Andante and his sister, Harmony, floating above the ground a couple of metres away from the guitarist's body.

__

"It's not your time yet, Harmony!" The guitarist grabbed hold of her brother's shoulders.

"No…I want to come with you! I miss you Andante!" she cried. The teenage boy took a step back and put his own hands on her shoulders.

"Harmony…you can't…there are people who need you! You are still needed here! Sis, this is your destiny…you are a digidestined and you have to see this through. You have a lot to live for." Andante said softly.

"Like what?!" she cried. Her brother took her face in his hands.

"Your sister, your friends…and yourself…and you know as well as I do that there is some-one else too, to live for…he needs you as much as you need him."

The guitarist sniffed and looked down.

"I needed you…and you left me"

"I never left, Harmony. I've always been with you and Melody…do you think if I had left you that I would be here today?"

Harmony remained silent. Andante sighed and brushed the girl's dark hair out of her face.

"I'll always be with you…and Melody too. Ever since I left you two alone I have watched over you. I never left." He repeated, lowering his arms to hold her hands.

"You don't have to go back Harmony…but it's up to you."

The guitarist looked back at her body and then over at Matt who lowered his gaze to pretend he hadn't heard.

__

"Goodbye Andante."

The boy smiled and hugged his sister, taking something from around his neck and tying it around Harmony's. She glanced down.

"What's this?"

"My crest" he answered simply, giving her a shock.

"WHAT?!"

"I was destined to be a digidestined too…but ah…dying kind of interfered with that plan…" he grinned and answered her unspoken question.

"It's the crest of Strength and I want you to have it" he continued as she slowly began to drift back towards her body, their entwined hands slipping away from each other.

"Remember I'll never be completely gone, Harmony! I'll always be with you- listen to the music!" he called out as they both faded away.

Matt watched as the two vanished and thought he had dreamt it all…until…

"I found a pulse!" Joe cried out and a cheer went up from the digidestined. The blonde rebel almost fell back in surprise and raced towards them, pushing past Joe and Mimi, crouching down beside the digidestined he loved.

Izzy watched as Melody wiped her tears away and grinned as she hugged him joyfully.

"Thank-you so much Izzy!" she grinned and grabbed him by his collar, pulling him forward until his lips met hers in an overjoyed kiss. After a few seconds that caused Izzy to almost pass out from shock she pulled away and grinned, turning back to Harmony as she heard her groan.

The guitarist's violet eyes fluttered open and she found herself staring into a pair of night-blue ones. Matt.

"De ja vu…" she whispered so only he could hear. He gave her a confused look.

"Isn't this how we first met?"

He grinned as he realised what she was getting.

"Yeah but the plot is slightly different…" his eyes sparkled with mischief.

"How?"

"Because this time I'm gonna kiss you." She smiled as he pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers.

"Hmmm…inspiring isn't it?" Sora winked at Tai. He grinned and dropped Koromon to the ground.

"Ommmph! HEY! What's the big-" but as he looked up he fell silent, for Tai had leaned Sora down and was kissing her passionately.

"Don't those two ever stop?!" Joe sighed. Mimi pushed him slightly.

"Hey! Sora and Tai don't kiss that much in front of us!"

"I'm not talking about them! I'm talking about Tai and Matt!"

"Huh?" Melody looked up, confused. The others looked at him too and he grinned.

"What I mean is, even when kissing those two don't stop competing!" he gestured at the teenage boys and everyone followed his gaze. All of a sudden they realised that the rebel and their leader were engaged in a fierce frenching session with their girlfriends, having started a pretty intense kissing contest.

Melody giggled and started laughing, soon joined by Kari and TK as they chuckled over their brothers. Eventually Izzy, Joe and Mimi joined in, along with all the digimon. Hearing the laughter, Matt and Tai stopped, leaving Sora and Harmony breathless. They gazed at each other and then turned to the others.

"What?"

****

EPILOGUE

Izzy sat staring at his computer screen. Just staring. He shook himself and tried to remember what it was he had been doing, but every time he tried to concentrate, all he could see was Melody's face. 

They had set up camp a couple of miles away from the castle, not wanting to hang around the spooky place a moment longer. It was near a waterfall and small lake, hidden by a grove of trees, which they were on the other side of. They had chosen that place because of course Melody had wanted to get cleaned up.

*flashback*

"… I have nothing to wear, my hair is a mess and I'm covered in dirt! I guess I'm gonna need a complete make-over" Melody said, gesturing at herself. Mimi glanced up at hearing the word 'make-over'.

"I'll help you!" she grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her towards the forest which led to the waterfall.

"WAAAHH…what have I gotten myself into!!!…." Harmony grinned as her sister disappeared from view before turning to the others.

"Well, I have an extra pair of shorts she could wear, but she is gonna need a new top." She said, digging through her backpack and glancing around at the others.

Izzy stepped forward.

"I ah…I have a…spare shirt." They all looked at him and he smiled nervously.

"Really? Where is it?" Harmony asked in surprise.

"Ahem…I- gave it to TK because he had a bag to put it in."

"Hey! That's right!" TK grinned and ran to his bag, pulling out another orange shirt.

"Here it is!" he said triumphantly and passed it to Harmony.

"Thank-you TK…you too, Izzy!" she smiled at him. "I guess I'll go give her these to wear…" she wandered off.

"I'll come to!" Sora said and then gestured at Kari. "May as well make it a girl thang! Coming Kari?"

"Alright!" the girl grinned, happy to be counted as old enough to join in a 'girl thang' as Sora called it. She ran after the short-haired girl and the two disappeared into the forest, following Harmony.

Tai turned around to stare at Izzy, grinning. "Ohhh….I think the computer geek has a crush on MELODY!" he sang and Izzy crossed his arms.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about. Mel needed a shirt so I was happy enough to a lend her one."

"MEL?! So she has a nickname now?!" Matt grinned. Izzy blushed and gave in.

"Alright…I succumb to your so-called superiority when it comes to girls!" he huffed and continued quietly, blushing harder. "Just don't tell her…"

The others grinned.

"Don't worry Iz" Matt said. "We can keep a secret, right TK?"

"Yep!" his brother grinned. "We won't tell anyone you like Melody!"

*end of flashback*

Izzy closed his laptop and sat still, thinking. He had been fine right up until Melody returned- looking incredibly…beautiful. It seemed the girls had washed her inside out- Mimi had even taken scissors and a comb to her hair. She had trimmed the ends to get out the knots and brushed the blonde locks thoroughly. Her sneakers had been cleaned up a bit and she was wearing a pair of Harmony's jean shorts…and his shirt.

He shivered. She looked better in it than he did! The sleeves were rolled up like his were and she wore it closely to the way he did…except for one thing. She had undone the last few buttons and tied up the ends into a knot, showing off her slim waist. That had done it…

Now Izzy could hardly stop himself from stuttering or blushing in her presence, he didn't even sound like his usual intellectual self when talking to her!

He sighed, realising he wasn't going to get any work done that evening. He decided to go watch the sun set and walked into the forest, towards a hill that he knew overlooked the valley they had passed through.

Melody stared at the penciled face that was slowly turning to colour under her expert fingers. To her delight, Harmony had been carrying her sketchbook and art supplies in her bag just before she was hurled into digiworld. The artist was so glad she still had them…she had missed this so much…

Dipping her brush in a small, water-filled container she had made she glanced up at the setting sun. It was so beautiful at this time of evening, she just wished she had someone to share it with. Glancing down at the picture she was painting she knew exactly who it was that she wished was with her.

"Melody?" She gasped and jumped to her feet, sending tubes of paint and pencils flying- along with her sketchbook. She turned to see Izzy staring at her with a sheepish expression.

"I'm sorry…let- let me help you…" he knelt down with her and helped her pick up the scattered art supplies. As she searched the long grass for a pencil, his eye caught sight of the upturned sketchbook. He picked it up and flipped through the pictures.

"Hey…these are prodigious…you're very good." He said and she looked up, startled and watched with horror as he turned to the last page.

"No! Don't!" but it was too late. Izzy stared down in surprise at the mirror-image portrait of himself.

"You…you drew…me?" he said with disbelief. She tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and looked down.

"Well…you- you're very photogenic…and y'know…I thought you were quite handsome" she blushed, fiddling with a couple of paintbrushes. He looked down at it again.

She thought he was _handsome_? He'd never been called that before…oh his mother had, but this was a girl his age he was talking about…a girl he liked…

He glanced up to find her staring at him strangely.

"What?"

"Uh…well, I just remembered…back when you were attacked by Lady Teleoromon…before the others came… you yelled something to me. What did you say exactly?" she said, puzzled. It was Izzy's turn to blush.

"I…ah…" _Say it you idiot! Tell her that you said you loved her!!! _A voice spoke in his head.

"I- I said…" he hesitated and looked down, mumbling. "I nvm nm"

"What?" she asked, feeling confused. He sighed.

"I said I…loved you…" he trailed off and glanced into her large violet eyes which had somehow managed to grow even wider.

"I- love you too…" she said, startling him to no end. They sat in front of each other, just staring. Slowly they moved closer and Melody closed her eyes as he gently pressed his lips to hers. The artist ran her tongue along his bottom lip, prying his lips open before she slipped her tongue in. He made a pleasured noise through the kiss and pulled her close to him. She sighed as his own tongue entered her mouth and danced around hers, almost as if moving with the music that they could faintly hear…the sounds of a beautiful song played by a guitar, wafting on the summer breeze…

Harmony continued the slow ballad and glanced up from her shaded place on the other side of the meadow- to where Izzy and Melody were. She grinned as she saw them lean in and kiss.

After a few minutes she sighed and stopped playing, staring out at the setting sun. Her hand wandered to her neck where her crest hung alongside her brother's; the guitarist glanced at it. Strength. It figured her brother would get that- but why give it to her?

__

To give you strength, to help you stay strong. said a voice in her head, which deep down she knew was Andante.

__

To remind you I'm here- just listen to the music…

She closed her eyes as she heard a beautiful song echo in her head and around her, drifting across the meadow. Suddenly her hand began to move on it's own, seemingly guided by her brother to play an unrecognized chord progression. She heard his voice in her head and found herself singing with him in harmony.

__

And I'd give up forever to touch you

Cause I know that you feel me somehow

You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be

And I don't wanna go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment

And all I can breathe is your life

And sooner or later it's over

I just don't wanna miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me

Cause I don't think that they'd understand

When everything's made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming

Or the moment of truth in your lies

When everything feels like the movies

Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive

And I don't want the world to see me

Cause I don't think that they'd understand

When everything's made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

Harmony stopped playing as she felt someone kiss her neck, but the song continued to move on it's own, a ghostly sound on the wind. She put down her guitar and turned to see Matt staring at her with those azure that held her so entranced. He leaned forward and kissed her softly, their mouths very close together when he pulled away.

"I love you" he whispered, sending shivers up and down her back.

"I love you too, Matt" she said softly and he kissed her again, wrapping his arms about her waist.

__

And I don't want the world to see me

Cause I don't think that they'd understand

When everything's made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

Andante watched his two siblings finally begin to move on with their lives.

And I don't want the world to see me

Cause I don't think that they'd understand

When everything's made to be broken

I just want you to know who I am

Matt held out his hand to Harmony. She hesitated and looked down at her brother's crest before glancing back up at the blonde. He smiled at her- much like her brother did- showing her a secret smile that he reserved only for her. The guitarist smiled back and took his hand as they walked away.

Harmony breathed deeply, feeling as if a heavy burden she had carried for so long was finally lifted… closing an old chapter in her life.

__

I just want you to know who I am…

Andante smiled to himself.

And a new chapter was just beginning…

I just want you to know who I am.

~~ THE END~~

::looks at the two words:: WOW! I actually FINISHED!!! ^_^ I'd just like to take this last moment to thank Jehana and Jade who encouraged me to continue and particularly Jehana who gave me the idea for the crest of verity. Thanx girlz! ::sniff:: y'know at the same time that I am sad to see this come to an end, I'm REALLY glad I'm finished!!!! ^_^

::sigh:: Au Revoir and a final goodbye to those who read and reviewed the story! See ya in my next fic! ^_~

__


End file.
